OPINION
There are fewer more worrying sights on a football pitch than a player going down for no apparent reason.
Impact injuries are part and parcel of the game, but when a player starts clutching a part of his body that has been nowhere near a collision, you can’t help but be immediately concerned.
Another surefire sign of something being wrong is a teammate looking away in horror as opposed to helping a colleague, and unfortunately for Newcastle United, that is exactly how Fabian Schar reacted to Florian Lejeune’s injury in the 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.
The Frenchman went in for a challenge and came out of it signalling to the opposite leg, before immediately letting the bench know that he had to come off.
Speaking in his press conference (as transcribed by the Chronicle), Rafa Benitez seemed to reaffirm the concern.
He said: “Lejeune seems bad. It was the other knee. It seems bad.
“We have to wait to see what the doctor says. We need to assess him tomorrow but it seems bad.
“He felt a click in his knee and it felt bad.”
It was a truly awful thing to see, with the player visibly in distress, and the concern for the Magpies will be that he faces another lengthy spell on the sidelines after already missing the start of the season with a ruptured cruciate ligament.
From a footballing point of view, he would be a huge miss for the Magpies. Since his return to action at the start of the year, he has been one of the key components of the Toon Army’s transformation in form.
The unsung defender has also helped to get the best out captain Jamaal Lascelles, and it will be difficult to rekindle the same kind of defensive solidity that the Magpies have built without him in the side.
After such a sickening incident, Newcastle fans will just be crossing their fingers that things aren’t as bad as they seem.
