Newcastle United head coach Steve Bruce has claimed that he hasn’t seen Magpies striker Dwight Gayle since the team were in China.
The north east giants traveled to the Far East for the Premier League Asia Trophy this summer, and Bruce has said that that was the last time he saw the 28-year-old.
“It’s just unfortunately when we think Dwight’s getting better he feels it [calf injury] again,” he said, as per The Northern Echo. “He was in the gym the other day doing some strength work and he felt it again.
“We hope for another opinion. Since I’ve walked through the door, I[‘ve] seen Dwight in China on the last day of training and I haven’t seen him since. Let’s hope we can get him fit, Andy [Carroll] as well, but [we’ll] see what the new specialist has to say, see if there’s nothing more sinister.”
OPINION
This seems like a strange one. You have to wonder how literal Bruce was being when he said this, because even though Gayle’s been injured for all the time Bruce has been at the club, it would be strange for them not to have come across each other at some point. It’s not as if injured players are banished from the training ground and treated like lepers because they’re sidelined. Yes, there will naturally be less contact between coach and player when the latter is injured, but that doesn’t mean that they should just not see each other for months. You can feel the frustration Bruce has that he’s not had Gayle available to him, and it’s easy to see why. Having both Gayle and Carroll injured means that there’s so much pressure on the shoulders of club record signing Joelinton, because Yoshinori Muto hasn’t been much support so far. So here’s hoping that both Gayle and Carroll recover from their setbacks as quickly as possible.
