Newcastle United midfielder Isaac Hayden has lifted the lid on the hip injury he suffered in the team’s defeat to Arsenal on Monday.
The 24-year-old had to be substituted in the second half, having played much of the game with the problem. His involvement against Crystal Palace on Saturday is now in doubt.
“Yeah, I was just uncomfortable in my hip area,” he told The Chronicle. “I tried to keep going during the first half when it was a little bit sore, and then I tried to carry on after the break, but I just didn’t quite feel comfortable enough to sprint or anything.
“So the manager made the decision to take me off, and that’s what happened. I don’t know how it’s going to react until I see when I return to training really. It’s just one of those things where I took the ball during the first half, and I just felt a little bit tight around my hip area.”
OPINION
Hayden is such an important player to Newcastle nowadays that any minor knock he suffers is cause for concern. He has been in excellent form since coming into the team around the turn of the year, and so manager Rafael Benitez will be hoping that this setback is only a minor one for the Englishman. However, if he isn’t passed fit enough to take on Palace at the weekend then Benitez does have the choice between Ki Sung-yueng and Jonjo Shelvey to replace Hayden alongside Mohamed Diame. To be fair, it’s not as if Hayden tore a ligament or even pulled a hamstring. No, he was just complaining of some tightness. Obviously it was still serious enough to force him off, but you’d think that with some rest and recuperation he would probably he fit enough to feature against the Eagles in some capacity. That has to be the hope, anyway, for a player who has enjoyed a phenomenal turnaround in the last few months.
