As an injury depleted Newcastle United hobbles it’s way through the middle part of the season, news came through that Leon Best has received his eighth international call up for the Republic of Ireland team.
The 24 year old hitman has been called for the squad for the Republic’s upcoming game against Wales on February 8th. This will be the first game in the inaugural ‘Carling Nations Cup’ to be held in Ireland. This comes fairly soon after the news that fellow striker, Shola Ameobi, has been selected for the Nigeria squad for a friendly match against Guatemala on February 9.
With Andy Carroll’s delayed return from a thigh injury, and Newcastle facing matches against and in form Blackburn team on the 12th, and a resceduled clash with Birmingham on the 15th (or possibly the 19th or 20th), this could be a worry for the already injury ravaged squad should the players pick up any knocks. If the worst were to happen, and both players were injured in some way, Peter Lovenkrands and Xisco would be the only remaining first team strikers. Current injuries include Steven Taylor (hamstring), Dan Gosling (knee), Alan Smith and Ryan Taylor (ankle and foot), Hatem Ben Arfa (broken leg), as well as the aforementioned Carroll. (more…)
With the news that Hatem Ben Arfa has broken both the Tibula and Fibia bones in his leg still being digested by many Newcastle fans, it is perhaps inevitable that questions will now be asked about how long the player will be out of action for.
The sensible thing to say is that nobody will really know until Ben Arfa has undergone surgery in Manchester later today. These kinds of injury can be very different from person to person and the length of time it can take for someone to recover can vary greatly.
Without wanting to sound too grotesque, the best thing we can hope for is that the breaks are as far away from the ankle or knee as possible and that they are clean breaks. In a strange kind of way, that is the best outcome of this terrible situation Ben Arfa has found himself in. (more…)
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, goes the sound of transfer window clock.
Yet whilst the time ticks on, Newcastle don’t, well not in the transfer market anyway. Sure we have signed James Perch and Dan Gosling, but the latter would not have been a pre-planned exercise as nobody thought he would be available, especially on a free transfer.
So just what is the hold up? I was under the impression that with us sealing promotion early-doors that we would be able to steal a march on our rivals in the transfer market.
It seems not, and with only 35 (guesswork) days of the window remaining perhaps now is the time when Newcastle should actually begin to try and make some proper tracks with the recruitment drive. We are desperately short of numbers in some key areas, and they will need addressing if we are to be fully prepared for long and arduous season ahead. (more…)
Most of us are aware that our beloved Newcastle squad is, how should we say, a little thin on numbers at the moment.
Whather or not that gets rectified by signing players is something that we are waiting to see, but for now we find ourselves succeptable to an injury crisis.
We have already lost Danny Simpson, who will definately miss the start of the season whilst Steven Taylor is another player who could miss the start of the season, if his shoulder injury requires surgery.
Now it looks like Tamas Kadar is the latest in line who could potentially miss out on the start of the new season through a groin injury, which was the reason he played no part in the 3-0 friendly win at Carlisle last weekend. Unfortunately, all of these players are defenders, so are we suffering our first injury crisis of the season, before a competitive ball has been kicked? (more…)