Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe met the media yesterday and he provided updates on the Magpies’ multitude of injured players. The injury list was always long last season, and it’s already pretty substantial here in the preseason. Howe gave updates on Jamal Lascelles (knee surgery recovery), Sven Botman (also knee surgery recovery), Lewis Miley (ankle) and Matt Targett (foot).
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Heading into this weekend’s pair of friendlies, Girona on Friday night and Brest on Saturday, let’s get you up to speed on everybody’s situation.
Said Howe: “[Lascelles and Botman] are longer-term with knee injuries, but we hope maybe towards the end of the year that theyโll be closer.”
Maybe they’ll feature at some point in 2024, but most likely, we won’t see them again until 2025.
Howe also pinpointed the Targett for that player’s return (see what I did there). He could be in contention for the season opener versus newly promoted Southampton FC.
“We anticipate he’ll hopefully return to training probably in the build-up to Southampton; that was the plan,” said Howe.
Regarding Miley, Howe said: “[Losing] Lewy was a big blow losing him, but he’s making good progress.”
So that covers the information Howe disclosed on Wednesday, but we also wanted to include the most recent update on Callum Wilson (disc in his back), from two weeks ago.
“Callum had an injection in his back. Without going into too much detail, I think it was a bulge in his disc which needed treatment, so he had that operation, and I think he may miss the start of the season,” Howe said.
“Thankfully, there are not too many games at the start.”
Sounds like Wilson won’t be back until after the September internationals, at earliest.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor ofย The Sports Bank.ย Heโs also theย author of โTransatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,โ andย โNo, I Canโt Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.โ
He currently contributes toย Ravens Wire, part of the USA Today SMGโs NFL Wire Networkย and theย Internet Baseball Writers Association of America.ย His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated,ย Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times.ย You can follow himย onย Linked Inย andย Twitter.
