It’s better news with regard to injuries at Newcastle.

toonsy

Ben Arfa closing on on return?
Once again it’s been another year that has been dominated by injury at Newcastle. The yearly curse has arguably struck us harder this time around as, quite simply, our squad lacks strength in depth in certain areas.

Still, I have to credit those players who have come in and done a job and, to use a cliche, have ‘taken their chance’ when they have been called upon to fill in for more established Premier League players.

It’s looks as though those injuries are starting to clear up now though and, fingers crossed, it could be that Newcastle have a nearly full squad to choose from when we reach the final few weeks of the season, so I thought that perhaps I would give a quick update on how things stand with regard to injury at the moment.

Dan Gosling is currently easing himself back into training after suffering a setback upon his return from a long-standing cruciate ligament injury. It will be another longer than expected lay-off for the lad as the club seem keen to handle his recovery using a softly-softly appraoch, which is understandable given the length of time he has been out for.

Ryan Taylor is another player who is back in training and is even closer to returning to first-team action. Taylor played in the reserves last night and had Pedro purring as he put in a strong performance in a 2-0 win against Bedlington Terriers. It’s been three months since Sol Campbell clattered Taylor in training and mangled his ankle, so it’s nice to see him return to action unscathed.

Moving on to another Taylor, Stephen will be back in training on Monday as he steps up his his return from a hamstring injury. It’s been a torrid 13 or so months for the defender who has been hampered by knee and shoulder injuries which has restricted him to only a handful of appearances for the first team.

Shola Ameobi was going to be out for six weeks, and he could still be if he doesn’t feel confident enough to play using his specially fitted face mask that he will be going to the USA to get fitted tomorrow. However, if Shola doesn’t have any issues with said gimp mask then he could be back playing in time for the Bolton game, although a return against Everton in the game after would look to be more likely.

Stephen Ireland is pencilled in to return to training at the end of February having being signed from Aston Villa whilst already suffering a knee injury. The move was initially in doubt after Ireland failed his medical, but upon closer inspection the medical team decided that Ireland would make a suitable recovery. I would say that it’s likely to be towards the end of March before we see the loanee anywhere near first-team action.

And finally, saving the best and most anticipated until last, Hatem Ben Arfa is also scheduled to return to training at the end of the month. A return to first team action will be a while yet as he builds his fitness up slowly and effectively puts himself through another pre-season.

Ben Arfa has been keeping himself in shape whilst he has been on the sidelines, but he will still need to rebuild the muscle in his leg slowly to reduce the likelihood of any form of setback. I would say it’s unlikely that we’ll see Ben Arfa back in the black and white again until the end of March at the earliest, maybe even the first week or two in April to be safe. Either way, I doubt that we will see the best of Benny boy this season and will have to wait until next season to see him back in full flight for us.

So that just about covers all of our injured players and their scheduled return dates. Obviously none of them are set in stone and there is a possibility that they could all suffer setbacks, which would be very Newcastle, but it does look like it will give us extra options as we head into the final few weeks of the season.

Fingers crossed!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

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112 thoughts on “It’s better news with regard to injuries at Newcastle.”

  3. I know it’s horrible, I was pleased when smudge was ruled out. I honestly think he considerably weakens the team when he plays and it gives pards less of a headache by leaving out a senior player

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  4. I’ve said it before I’ll say it now…

    The two biggest players that caused our relegation due to lack of ability were **** and Smith. Its no coincidence that both players have been relegated in two different teams.
    They were the worst midfield pairing the premiership has ever seen and made our defense look terrible because of the pressure they put on us.

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  5. Guys,just took a look at the two clubs next 4 fixtures that are currently above us,Bolton and Mackems. First is the Sunderland…

    Everton v Sunderland
    Arsenal v Sunderland
    Sunderland v Liverpool
    Manchester City v Sunderland

    Next Bolton.

    Newcastle United v Bolton Wanderers
    Bolton Wanderers v Aston Villa
    Manchester United v Bolton Wanderers
    Birmingham v Bolton Wanderers

    And Finall Us.

    Newcastle United v Bolton Wanderers
    Newcastle United v Everton
    Stoke City v Newcastle United
    Newcastle United v Wolverhampton Wanderers
    —————————————————————————
    That’s spell something!

    Europa Here Come!~~ 😆

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  7. Anyone had a look at the League from last year? It’s crazy how any other year, Bolton quite possibly would have been relegated but now are up in 8th!

    14 Bolton Wanderers 38 10 9 19 42 67 −25 39
    15 Wolverhampton 38 9 11 18 32 56 −24 38
    16 Wigan Athletic 38 9 9 20 37 79 −42 36
    17 West Ham United 38 8 11 19 47 66 −19 35

    Note the amount of wins against ours

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  11. Also,

    With regard to the number of points needed to stay up…

    These are the points I can see the bottom sides ending up on…

    Wigan 39
    West Brom 38
    Wolves 36
    West Ham 35

    Thats being very generous towards all four “W” sides in their remaining fixtures, because they all (especially West Brom) have extremely tough fixtures coming up.

    Whats for certain is that three sides starting with a “W” will go down this year.

    Wolves and West Ham need a miracle.

    West Brom are in free fall and have the hardest run in by miles:
    Stoke (A),
    Arsenal (H),
    Liverpool (H),
    Sunderland (A),
    Chelsea (H),
    Tottenham (A),
    Newcastle (A),
    Birmingham (A),
    Everton (H),
    Aston Villa (H)
    Wolves (H+A)

    Can’t see them getting 13 points from those fixtures to make 40.

    West Ham have:
    Liverpool (H),
    Tottenham (A),
    Man U (A),
    Chelsea (A),
    Man City (A),
    Sunderland (H)
    Stoke (H)
    Bolton (A)
    Aston Villa (H)
    Blackburn (A)
    Wigan (H)

    Can anyone see them getting 15 points from that to get to 40?

    Wolves themselves will need 16 points from their final 12 fixtures to reach the 40 point mark.

    Anyone still think 40 points won’t be enough to survive?

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  12. Looking at our fixtures, we only really have three tough games left of our remaining 11. (Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea).

    The rest are very winnable. And we only need 5 points. I think one win from our next two games will garauntee survival.

    The quicker we get that. The sooner we can sign our players up to new contracts and sign new players up with pre-contracts 😀

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  15. Poor ol smiffy 🙁 Was sad to see him injured, its never great, plus we missed the chance to flog him off. Hopefully leeds won’t get promotion this year and will take him next year for his local grit and determination that will push them back to the premier le…blah blah blah.

    He was alright last year, but in all honesty he found his level.

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  17. Newkie 😉 you jogged my memory about Smith he is out for a long while 🙁 I do think he would still have something to give to a Championship side if he has a full recovery

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  21. I like smith as a person and by all accounts he’s still a force in the dressing room, un/fortunately he ain’t 1st team anymore – his career is almost over so might be an idea to offer him coaching role …… obviously for a lot less than current wages

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  23. Big Dave
    aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that’s who it was, though I knew hi voice.
    Like thrush him like isn’t he 😀

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  26. ILM he sickens me almost as much as Andy dull Gray 👿
    Ice they are pretty tasty at footie 😉 and aye maybe its short term memory loss 😆

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  30. If things go to form Shola will get his mask and the FA will ban it. And maybe even give him a ban for a few games for illegal gear.

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  34. Ice you dont need to pretend to me anymore, batty allready told me you were just trying to wind me up, and that you are in the JB fan club 😉
    Dont worry mate I wont tell anyone else 😀

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  37. As soon as they sub off walcott a double salvo…opposite of last year ha. If Arsenal beat Barca and we got 4 points from Arsenal this season-does that mean we’re better than Barca? 😀

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  43. NewkieBrown
    Posted February 16, 2011 at 9:30 PM
    As soon as they sub off walcott a double salvo…opposite of last year ha. If Arsenal beat Barca and we got 4 points from Arsenal this season-does that mean we’re better than Barca?

    ——————————————–
    Yes, it does. 😀

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  56. Never seen Mess play so badly…
    He was completely disinterested in the second half… He was so greedy the whole night too. Should have taken him off instead of Villa. Barca missed Puyol big time and he’s back next game…

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  57. He doesn’t drink batty, it’s all a myth. He just drinks some sort of golden coloured pop with some white, sort of frothy stuff on the top 😆

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  60. I’ve been on a bit Ice, but usually I’m gone by the time you’ve finished walking FCB’s dogs! 😉 😆

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  64. what makes you think its a secret,been dropping batty off there for months,hes moved up to the toilets now,ill stick with dogs batty cannot handle the long walks

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  65. tell ya what its realy pissing me off our bairns dieing for the sake of them c@nts across afgan ,it breaks me heart

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  70. Its a disgrace. There’s so many of them living here now, with a british passport, taking benifits, teaching in our schools and they go home and spend all night posting hatred on the internet and planning on how to blow us up. 😐

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  71. dog he got back from autria last night ,he went across too see his best m8 who is in the forces snowboarding team ,so he had free digs and a good **** up 🙂

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  75. dave a kna it must be ,but his m8s name i will never forget 🙁 theres afacebook dedicated too him ,i read some of the comments and think thank fck that wasent my son ,then feel guilty

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