The club have released the latest pictures of the team in training today, however the clips show no sign of Salomon Rondon – suggesting the Venezuelan striker may not be back to face Brighton on Saturday after all.
On the plus side, Muto, Kenedy, Dummett all feature in the photos, so they all seem fine despite carrying knocks after the Man Utd loss.
After picking up a thigh injury during last month’s 0-0 draw away to Crystal Palace, Rondon has been doing extra work behind the scenes to get back to full fitness, with him pictured being put through his paces at the club’s gym just last week.
He didn’t go away on international duty with Venezuela and had looked likely to return to the squad this weekend ahead of Saturday’s crucial game with Brighton, however it’s a slight concern to find he’s nowhere to be seen in today’s training pictures:
? Check out our gallery from training today as Newcastle continue to prepare for Saturday's @premierleague game against @OfficialBHAFC.https://t.co/MjRoFrqOeD #NUFC pic.twitter.com/v6AyvXiAwz
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) October 17, 2018
A real positive from the pictures was that Florian Lejeune was seen doing exercises with the group for the first time in months – however the club have confirmed that he is still ‘a little way off’ returning to full training following his cruciate knee ligament injury over the summer.
Back to Rondon and Muto’s recent form may just mean that his potential absence isn’t felt to much on Saturday, however in the long run we really do need him back fit and firing.
Let’s hope there’s been no setback and that there’s nothing in his absence from the training pictures today, but considering he was doing this (see below video) last week, it seems very odd that he wasn’t involved today.
Time out… but I never stop!
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Pausa obligada, ¡pero el trabajo nunca para! #GladiatorRELOADING ? pic.twitter.com/LoeEgM06vw— Salomón Rondón (@salorondon23) October 9, 2018
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