Speaking on the latest episode of the #NUFC Matters podcast with Steve Wraith, Liam Kennedy of the Shields Gazette has revealed some unwelcome insight on the injury front for Newcastle United.
What did he say?
Indeed, he was explaining the path to recovery for Callum Wilson and revealed that he would be surprised if the England international returned before April, having suffered a hamstring tear in the win over Southampton.
“It’s a slow process with these (kind of) tear injuries whereby you’ve just got to take small steps just keep pushing that bit further, rest, push a bit further,” he said from the 23:53 mark onwards.
“I would be very surprised if we see him back before April.
“Very, very surprised.”
Where do we go from here?
To be honest, Joe Willock does look like the best focal point at the moment.
According to FBRef data, the Arsenal loanee is the player getting his shots off closest to goal (amassing an average of 8.7 yards, with only Federico Fernandez getting closer). Clearly, it’s not an ideal situation to be in but with Joelinton going off injured against Manchester United and Dwight Gayle dropped from the start for that particular game, Steve Bruce isn’t exactly blessed with options.
Perhaps Andy Carroll could act as a target man, allowing Willock (who was the team’s most progressive ball carrier during his debut against the Saints), Allan Saint-Maxminin and Miguel Almiron to float off of him could be the best way of getting all three closer to the opposition goal.
The Verdict
As pointed out by Mark Douglas in his piece in The Chronicle, Newcastle do have a history of refusing to spend sufficiently up front.
That has certainly come back to bite them this season with Wilson out for the foreseeable future. Stuck with what they’ve got at the moment as they cannot register a free agent in their already-full 25-man Premier League squad, internal solutions are going to have to be found as quickly as possible.
Frankly, Newcastle’s season absolutely depends on that.
