Newcastle United captain Jamaal Lascelles has been ruled out for three months due to injury, according to The Sun.
The newspaper claims that the 25-year-old will miss the next few months due to the knee injury he suffered against Bournemouth in the 2-1 victory on Saturday.
The Magpies skipper, who has been an ever-present in the Premier League so far this season, underwent a scan after the game which revealed ligament damage.
He has now been ruled out of the festive fixture list and is expected by the club’s physios to miss two to three months of action.
OPINION
This is a hammer blow for Newcastle head coach Steve Bruce, who has leaned heavily on his captain through the first few months of the season. Lascelles has played 90 minutes in every single league game up until he went off early on against the Cherries, but was well replaced by Paul Dummett. The good news for Newcastle fans is that they are well-stocked in the position. Bruce has Fabian Schar, Ciaran Clark, Federico Fernandez, Dummett and the returning Florian Lejeune who can come in to replace the skipper. So from a footballing point of view they might not be too badly off, but from a leadership point of view this is a shocker for Bruce. Lascelles is one of the youngest captains in the top flight, and has been for some time, and he is thought to be a magnificent leader of men for the north east giants. That’s what Newcastle are really going to miss over the next few months. As mentioned, they have plenty of options at the heart of the defence, but Lascelles’ personality is what’s going to be difficult to replace.
