Eddie Howe has warned that he’ll have to be “very cautious” with Kieran Trippier and Callum Wilson as the pair edge closer to returning from long-term injuries.
Wilson hasn’t featured since our 1-1 draw with Man Utd in December, while Trippier has been missing since he broke a bone in his foot during last month’s 1-0 win over Aston Villa.
Howe suggests that Trippier could be back in first-team action before Wilson, with the latter managing issues around his achilles and calf – two ‘very delicate areas’ that put him at risk of being injured again if he’s made to do too much too soon.
As for Trippier, Howe seems hopeful he could be back in action ‘pretty soon’, as it’s a bone injury that should allow him to ‘progress quite quickly’ once he’s back in on the grass.
The NUFC boss has also issued updates on Jamal Lewis (groin) and Isaac Hayden (knee), hoping both will be back in training ‘soon’ after battling with long-standing niggles that needed to be operated on.
Speaking to NUFC.co.uk, here’s what the Toon boss has had to say in full…
Eddie Howe on Kieran Trippier and Callum Wilson:
“I’d say they are on schedule from where they were given their respective injuries, but I wouldn’t say necessarily ahead of schedule.
“They’re both serious injuries, both enough to obviously be operated on and go through a very intense rehab period.
“Callum’s injury, you have to be very careful with; that we don’t push him back too quickly and he ends up injuring himself again, because the achilles/calf is a very delicate area of the body and you need to make sure it’s robust enough to withstand heavy load.
“Kieran’s is slightly different. [It’s] a bone injury and I think, touch wood, if he can come through the early stages of coming out in his boots and then progressing quite quickly, he’s one we could see back in action hopefully pretty soon.
“But with both injuries, I do think we have to be very cautious. We don’t want to re-injure the player.
Eddie Howe on Jamal Lewis:
“Jamal [Lewis] ha had a long-standing groin problem and I was really pleased to see him operated on.
“We hope that that’s fixed his long-standing problem and he will, again, be okay in a relatively short period of time to return to training with us.
Eddie Howe on Isaac Hayden:
“And Isaac [Hayden] has been working after having a serious knee injury – again, one he’d played with for a long period of time.
“Touch wood, he’ll be back training soon.
Eddie Howe on the break:
“It’s very, very important that when you have a break in between games, you don’t lose fitness or sharpness – and I’m very confident we won’t.
“And I hope the group is more united than ever and renewed in its fight to stay in the league, hopefully mentally refreshed from the break and ready to attack these nine games.
“The Premier League’s a very difficult league and we take nothing for granted.
“We go into every game knowing we have to give our best to win.
“We’ve been on a brilliant run, but that is over. Now we have to start afresh.”
