OPINION
Newcastle United defender Fabian Schar has emerged as one of the bargains of the season in the Premier League, and so the Magpies faithful will have been very concerned with what happened to him on Saturday.
The 27-year-old went down injured during his team’s 3-1 win over Southampton, shortly after club record signing Miguel Almiron had also made way with a problem of his own.
The Paraguayan’s injury certainly looked more serious at first glance than his teammate’s, but it’s the setback suffered by the Switzerland international that will really leave Magpies fans hiding behind the sofa.
If Schar were to miss any game time due to this issue then that would present manager Rafael Benitez with a big problem. The Spaniard is already having to cope without Florian Lejeune at the back, so to lose Schar for an extended period of time would be very worrying indeed.
The former Deportivo man must be considered one of the top flight’s finest centre halves on this season’s showings. To try and replace him with someone like Federico Fernandez or Ciaran Clark simply wouldn’t work.
The worry for Benitez is that he doesn’t have anyone who can do quite what Schar does at the back. Not only is he an excellent defender fundamentally, but he sets the tempo for so much of what Newcastle do from an offensive point of view. He is often the one who starts attacks off with raking balls forward, so to not have that tool in the team’s arsenal would be a big blow.
However, we don’t yet know how serious the injury was, so all we can do at this point is hope that it wasn’t anything too bad. The sooner Schar is back playing the better for Newcastle, there’s no doubt about that.
