It’s not good news on Dwight Gayle today, who seems to have returned too early from his hamstring injury and Newcastle will have to pay the price for that.
The local papers today are reporting he will miss the next two weeks of games at least – through March 7th, which include the vital games away at Brighton, Huddersfield and Reading and some time after that too.
There are six games through 18th March when the two week International break starts and he’s likely to miss all of them.
Dwight Gayle leave the field on Tuesday night
When the league starts up again on the weekend of Saturday 1st April we have another 8 games left through the end of the season, so we have to hope somebody else will be able to score the goals for us before then.
Early in the game against Villa Gayle told the medical staff on the sidelines he was not feeling right and he was finally taken off after 33 minutes.
But we were hoping that was almost purely cautionary and perhaps only a tight hamstring and that he hadn’t damaged the hamstring further – but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
It’s also his 4th hamstring problem in sixteen months – as reported by the Chronicle – so it’s definitely chronic and something that needs to be fixed for the long term.
It will be interesting to see how many games Dwight can play before the end of the season – it may not be too many in the worst case.
But our best chance is to get him fit over the next five weeks before April 1st and then he can help us in those final 8 games of the season and fire us to promotion.
Rafa’s right that we will need Mitrovic, Murray and Perez this season and maybe even Gouffran playing up front at times?
This news on Gayle is not good news for Newcastle.
Comments welcome.
15 comments so far
Mister Tuff
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:03 PM
Comment #1Ed, are you sure about this injury to Gayle -because Jib says Gayle was withdrawn because of a tactical decision – not an injury.
I wonder who is correct.
toontaff2
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:04 PM
Comment #2Huddersfield
Beaten 5-0 by Fulham, 3-1 by Preston, 2-0 by Sheff Wed
Bet Ipswich 2-0, Brighton 3-1
Otherwise only 1 goal in it, in 6 defeats and 18 wins, with 4 draws.
Think the tight nature of their games will suit us under Rafa.
Missed the bus – Got stuck at the Crossroads 😆
toontaff2
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:06 PM
Comment #3April 1st, Gayle will return!
bettyswallocks
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:08 PM
Comment #4Jib……. You were fairly adamant that Gayle had been withdrawn for tactical reasons as oppose to an injury. I really think you ought to apologise to the blog for this misleading and inaccurate statement.
Tsunki
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:09 PM
Comment #5Tactical. Rafa thought it best to utilise a forward who could use both legs.
WWSBRD
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:09 PM
Comment #6I find it odd that Rafa brought Gayle back if he wasn’t 100% he’s been very cautious about injuries throughout this season and Villa wasn’t a big game
Was it a case of not trusting the alternatives or maybe Gayle misled the medical team? Gayle also hadn’t been sleeping or training properly for days before I think was mentioned? Seems odd to me
barkel
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:09 PM
Comment #7Toontaff, I agree with that. I think they surprised us so early on in the season and I think we were a little unlucky in not getting at least a draw. We should have a much better idea of how they will play against us and I believe Rafa is smart enough to know how to beat them
toonincheek
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:10 PM
Comment #8Lots of talk in the past about how teams look on their match
against us as a big BIG game.
And Rafa has to keep our feet on the ground, always talking
about how tough ALL games are, just to keep us psyched up.
Truth is – we have a far better players/squad/manager/fans
than anyone else in the Championship, so it’s hard to motivate
the players.
That’s where Rafa has done his job.
Now – for the games coming up against Brighton, Reading and
Huddersfield – we KNOW these teams have performed at
nearly the same level as us, so –
I expect our guys to be FULLY motivated and BLOW these
pretenders away.
Jib
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:13 PM
Comment #9Toontaff
Got stuck at the Crossroads
hahaha
😀
WWSBRD
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:17 PM
Comment #10We’ve got Bristol next haha forgot about that was thinking it’s Huddersfield anyone see trouble coming from them?
YoungMagpieFromBurnley
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:17 PM
Comment #11We’ve got to have some of the most attractive players in the league. Makes watching us playing bad a little easier. 🙂
north east lincs toon
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:19 PM
Comment #12Sky sports is saying Gayle is out for six weeks
Jib
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:19 PM
Comment #13Sweaty Betty
You are right of course
Dear Blog
Jib
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:26 PM
Comment #14Dear Blog
giimps
Feb 22, 2017 at 12:32 PM
Comment #15Accepted