OPINION
At this moment in time there is likely one player who the Newcastle United supporters will have least wanted to go down injured: Ayoze Perez.
The Magpies attacker has been in phenomenal form for Rafael Benitez’s side in recent weeks, scoring a hat-trick against Southampton last time out and bagging the opener for Newcastle against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
However, the unthinkable also happened at the AMEX Stadium, as the Spaniard was forced to go off during the first half having picked up what looked to be a hip injury.
There was a coming together with Seagulls centre half Shane Duffy and the 25-year-old never truly seemed to recover. He soldiered on gamely, but it was abundantly clear that something was still bothering him. Even after scoring he immediately limped over to teammate Salomon Rondon, clearly in too much pain to celebrate properly.
There’s no doubt that a Perez injury is a major blow to Newcastle. He has arguably been the team’s best player since the turn of the year, certainly over the past few weeks.
Miguel Almiron’s club record signing in January clearly reinvigorated him and he has gone on to produce some majestic form over the past couple of months.
However, if he ends up missing the final two games of the Premier League season then it will present Benitez with a bit of a headache. With Almiron himself already out for the remainder of the campaign, the Magpies boss will need to seriously reconfigure his attack if Perez is likewise afflicted.
Rondon will obviously remain in place as the central figure in the team’s attack, but a Christian Atsu and Kenedy combination alongside him simply isn’t as juicy as Perez and Almiron. Perhaps Yoshinori Muto will get a chance to play, which would be a slight positive at least.
Either way, though, the Newcastle supporters are surely in panic mode after witnessing Perez limping off on Saturday. Fingers crossed we receive some good news on him in the coming days.
