Eddie Howe has issued an injury update on two sidelined Mags at risk of leaving this summer.
This season has paled in comparison to the injuries, and ban, of last season that left our squad looking particularly thin in our Champions League conquest. Nevertheless, there have been some individual battles ongoing.
The future of two of our out of action and more experienced squad members has become clearer, and one is set to be returning in a matter of weeks.
Mixed update on Wilson and Lascelles
Eddie Howe has confirmed that Callum Wilson is back on the grass and eyeing early-February return “if all goes to plan” – but Jamaal Lascelles is still a “couple of months away” as he continues to recover from ACL surgery.
“Callum is on the grass again. Not training with the first team” said Howe ahead of today’s FA Cup game. “He’s making good progress. We’re very pleased with him.
“Such a difficult situation for him. He didn’t feel right after the game against Brentford and the scan showed a bigger problem than he felt – and it’s meant weeks on the sidelines. He could be coming back, if all goes to plan, around the beginning of February.”
Wilson, if fit, would have been the favourite to start against Bromley with Will Osula struggling for minutes under Howe but the hopes are he develops into a regular first team player next season.
There is also the matter to consider that if Wilson had stayed fit he would have been moved on in January, with West Ham speculated to be interested in the Englishman before he was sidelined for the second time this season.
On the other hand, Lascelles won’t be back anytime soon. “He is still working his way back,” said Howe. “Jamaal is a little bit delayed from Sven’s time. Every player is different, and every player responds differently to the operation and the stresses that you need to go through.
“He is making good progress and he has been the absolute model professional in terms of what he is being asked to do and how he is conducting himself. Without putting a definitive timeline on it, he is going to be a couple of months away.”
It seems that at the very least Lascelles will be fit enough to don the famous black-and-white stripes again before the end of the season, although he has his work cut out to play with Botman, Schar, Burn and Kelly likely to be ahead of him in the pecking order.
Time for both to leave in 2025?
The contracts of Lascelles and Wilson both expire at the end of this season, although we have the option to extend Wilson’s for a further 12 months with no need to make a decision until the closing stages of the season.
It may well be worth triggering the extension on the basis alone that, if Wilson comes back firing and can get a few goals under his belt before the end of the season, we can gather a small fee for the England international in the summer – though of course that poses the risk there are no takers, Wilson gets injured again and he remains on our books.
With both struggling for fitness it feels as though 2025 is the right time for both to find a new home after a lengthy service in the north east. Lascelles, though by all accounts important in the dressing room, has rarely featured under Howe.
