Newcastle United defender Florian Lejeune is set to be on the sidelines with injury for four to five months.
Lejeune, 27, has now damaged his ACL in the other knee after his comeback from a serious injury with the other one, with the club website confirming that he will be out for the season.
However, there is the possibility that the £38,000-a-week [Spotrac] player will not be fit in time for the start of next season, as Rafa Benitez has confirmed that the maximum amount of time that he will be out for is five months.
“Hopefully in four or five months he’ll be fine,” Benitez said in his pre-match press conference, as relayed by Chronicle journalist Lee Ryder on his personal Twitter account.
Rafa Benitez on Lejeune injury: "Hopefully in four or five months he'll be fine." #nufc
— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) April 11, 2019
OPINION
The fact that Lejeune may be out for a maximum of five months is definitely not the news that the Newcastle fans will be wanting to hear. Seeing as the new season will start in August, Lejeune being out for five months will mean that he will not return until September. This is a real shame, as he had only just come back in February after a serious injury in his other knee. Fingers crossed that this one is not as bad as the one that he had before, as that would be really gutting for him. That being said, he was just hitting his stride with Newcastle since his comeback, so to see him on the sidelines yet again is not a good sight to see. He is one of their best defenders and the team will certainly feel his lack of presence of the pitch against Leicester, but luckily Benitez has his pick of central defenders.
