When it rains, it pours at Newcastle United.
If Sunday’s FA Cup defeat to Brighton wasn’t awful enough, we lost Anthony Gordon to a three-game suspension and learned on Wednesday morning that Lewis Hall has been ruled out for the season due to a foot injury that requires surgery.
To make matters worse, Eddie Howe has received a gloomy report on Sven Botman’s fitness, which is even worse news.
Botman receives another massive blow.
Sven Botman has become the third Newcastle United player to be ruled out of next Sunday’s Carabao Cup final.
Craig Hope disclosed in a Wednesday night exclusive for The Mail that the Dutchman will have knee surgery after consulting a specialist on Tuesday.
It’s not the same knee that had ACL surgery last year, and it’s hoped the problem isn’t catastrophic, but it’s enough to make him go under the knife for the second time in a year.
Hope reports that it will become obvious in the next days how long the 25-year-old will be out. However, it will undoubtedly be enough to keep him out of Monday’s trip to West Ham and the cup final against Liverpool next weekend.
Botman has major concerns.
In the near term, losing Botman for a critical run of league and cup games is a major setback, but the problems go deeper.
We don’t know the entire depth of his latest problem, but it’s concerning that he’s had to have surgery on both of his knees in the last year.
The former Lille star barely returned after a 10-month hiatus following ACL surgery in January and has missed the last five games due to another knee ailment.
Last Friday, Eddie Howe told the media that Botman was scheduled to practice that day and was ‘near’ to making Sunday’s game against Brighton, but “didn’t feel 100% confident in his body.” And now we understand why.
Speedy recovery, Sven!
