Eddie Howe has revealed that Kieran Trippier’s return from injury could be further away than expected following a scan on his foot – but insists the right-back is still making “good progress.”
The England international suffered a broken metatarsal during a 1-0 victory against Aston Villa on February 13th in which he scored the winner.
The injury has now kept him out for seven successive games, but that has not stopped the former La Liga champion from helping to motivate and encourage his teammates from the side-lines.
There was hope building the 31-year-old could be available at some point in our upcoming run of home fixtures, with Howe saying in Friday’s press conference that he would be back “quite quickly” if results from his scan provided good news.
However, this now seems increasingly unlikely after scan results have come back, as Howe revealed after yesterday’s 5-1 defeat that the full-back will not return “as quickly as we initially wanted.”
Here’s what the NUFC boss said on the matter:
“His injury is healing, it’s not totally healed.
“We will be able to start pushing him, maybe not as quickly as we initially wanted to, but I still think he’ll come back this season.
“Again, there’s no definitive date on that but he’s making good progress.”
Hopefully the experienced defender will be back before the end of the season – especially if we manage to get dragged back into a relegation battle following an embarrassing performance in the capital.
