Eddie Howe has been speaking to the media this morning ahead of tomorrow’s FA Cup tie with Bournemouth at St James’ Park.
As expected, the first question centred around Fabian Schar’s ankle, with the 34-year-old taken off on a stretcher in the second half of Wednesday’s 4-3 win over Leeds.
Last night, Sky Sports reported that Schar has NOT broken his ankle, which Howe has backed up this morning in a slightly more in-depth update on the Swiss defender.
Howe is hoping it’s “not as bad as it first looked”, confirming it’s ligament damage, not a break. He’ll see a specialist in the coming days and, as things stand, the club are ‘confident’ he’ll play again this season:
“Hopefully not too bad, or maybe not as bad as it initially looked.
“He’s got an injury there but no break, it is ligament damage.
“He is seeing a specialist in the next coming days to get a definitive answer but maybe more positive than the initial assessment. Losing Fabian is a huge blow.”
“At the moment, we are confident Fabian will be back until the end of the season.”
When asked if his injury will force Newcastle to pursue a centre-back this month, Howe insisted we will wait for further updates on Schar, assess when Dan Burn (rib/lung) will return and consider what options we have internally before deciding what we do next.
“Let’s see. Let’s see with Dan and with other options we have internally.
“We are taking a watching brief…we will see how we go in the next few games, we have so many in a short period of time.”
As things stand, our only fit senior centre-back going into tomorrow’s game are Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman, with Lewis Miley forced to play in a central role in defence on Wednesday.
Jamaal Lascelles remains out, with Howe admitting this morning that he’s not feeling confident in his body, not training at present and a player that could leave in January if the right offer comes up.
