Ranger to supply the danger this Sunday?Andy Carroll looks likely to miss the game against Wigan on Sunday, and he could also miss the home game next week against West Ham after picking up a thigh injury.
Undoubtedly it is a huge blow to Newcastle as they face a very important week in the quest for Premier League survival as they come face to face with two teams that are battling it out at the bottom of the league currently, but being realistic there was always a risk that Carroll would pick up an injury at some point.
So now we must prepare to do battle against two teams that we are competing with without our star man. Kevin Nolan will return to the side to at least add some goal-scoring capability, but the main point of all this must be the fact that Nile Ranger will surely get a run out in the first-team in the absence of Carroll.
Many people have clamoured for Ranger to get some decent game time, and with Shola Ameobi still recovering from a hamstring strain, and now with Andy Carroll on the treatment table the time has surely come for our highly-rated youngster to attempt to make his impact on the first team. (more…)
Benny back in action soon?Hatem Ben Arfa has been continuing his recovery from a horrendous double leg-break injury by spending hours grafting away at a rehabilitation centre in the south of France.
And it appears that the hard work is paying off as Ben Arfa has been pencilled in for a return to training at Newcastle at the start of February.
This would be great news and would mean that the skillful Frenchman would return to action a hell of a lot sooner than was first feared. Obviously it will still take some time for Ben Arfa to return to full fitness as he will need to go through a kind of pre-season again and take it slowly so as not to aggravate the injury, but it would still signal a remarkable recovery from an injury that could quite easily have seen Hatem ruled out for the rest of the season and beyond.
“Hatem is doing really, really well,” his agent, Simon Stainrod told The Journal. (more…)
The last time most of us sawe Ben Arfa.The feel-good factor is in full swing at the moment, and it seems that it is more than just the fans who are wanting to get in on the act.
Hatem Ben Arfa has been keeping tabs on what has been going on at Newcastle as he recovers from a horrific double-leg break injury with his grandparents in Tunisia, and he has a simple message to the fans who have supported him ever since he arrived on Tyneside.
Speaking to the matchday programme at nufc.co.uk, Ben Arfa has delivered a timely reminder that he is still intent on returning to full fitness and repaying the faith that both Newcastle United and the fans have shown in him since he arrived from Marseille after a long-running, and at times controversial, transfer saga.
“I am doing really well. I am staying with my grandparents and that is good for the psychology aspect because it is not easy with an injury like this,” said Ben Arfa when asked about his recovery. (more…)
Get well soon Benny boy!With good news in short supply recently, Newcastle fans should hopefully be boosted by the news that Hatem Ben Arfa could be back in action sooner rather than later.
More details are beginning to emerge over the extent of the damage caused as a result of the double leg break Ben Arfa suffered a fortnight ago.
The news from the surgeons is that Ben Arfa will be back as good as before, and he may even return before the March date that has been unofficially mentioned.
One of the surgeons who operated on Ben Arfa also operated on Djibril Cisse’s broken leg, and that was a for more serious leg break than the one Ben Arfa has suffered. I’m not so sure if there is ever a good leg-break, but if there is then apparently Ben Arfa has one.
“One of the doctors involved with Hatem is the same French doctor that operated on Cisse so he knows what he’s doing,” Ben Arfa’s agent Simon Stainrod told the Sunday Sun. (more…)
Hatem Ben Arfa - Get well soon bonny lad.As Hatem Ben Arfa begins the long and winding road to what will hopefully be a full recovery, many people have been waiting to see just where the Frenchman would be conducting his rehabilitation.
What usually happens when a loan player suffers a serious injury like this is that the player will end up going back to his parent club, in this case Marseille, to conduct their rehabilitation.
The reason for that is that he is still technically their player and the club who own him will usually want to look after their own player, plus there is usually an unwillingness for the club that is loaning the player to take the financial hit of paying wages and medical bills for the player.
As I say, that is the usual way things happen, but it seems that things are happening differently with Hatem Ben Arfa. The news is that he will be staying on Tyneside and letting the Newcastle medical staff nurse him back to full fitness. That, in my eyes, is a very very positive move regarding the future of the player. (more…)
