Why Have Newcastle United Suffered So Many Injuries This Season?
Updated: 6 days ago
Newcastle United's growing injury list has become one of the biggest problems of Matthias Jaissle's early weeks at St James' Park.
Nine senior squad players were missing against Hull City, leaving Jaissle with severely limited first eleven choices and a substitutes' bench containing mostly untried youngsters.
The scale of the problem inevitably raises a question.
Are Newcastle simply suffering an extraordinary run of bad luck, or is the emphasis in training on a high intensity playing style part of the issue?
Are Newcastle's Muscular Injuries Becoming A Concern?
Not yet. But it needs keeping an eye on.
Anthony Elanga has been sidelined with a hamstring picked up in training and Joelinton, Ramsey and Dedic have all missed games due to muscle injuries.
So - excluding Tino who was carrying a muscle injury when Jaissle arrived - half of our eight other injuries are down to hamstrings and thighs.
Those type of injuries can also weaken the muscles and lead to persistent injury issues as we've seen with Livramento, Botman and Willock.
Concussion kept Gonzalez out whilst Burn and Jaouen have had ankle injuries and Osula a foot issue.
So at this stage of the season it may be as much down to bad luck as overstretching the squad in training - but it needs watching.
Has the Break Come at the Perfect Time?
Definitely.
Joelinton and Nico Gonzalez have returned to training and it is also reported that Dan Burn is on course for a return against Coventry City on 12th October.
That still leaves time for more players to return to first team contention and Jaissle will hope to have a considerably stronger squad available to select against Coventry who got their first win of the season before the break.
Bad Luck Or Training Issues?
The one thing that was consistent in Eddie Howe's time at the club was the high level of injuries and the number of days lost - often the highest or amongst the highest in the PL.
Like Jaissle, Eddie demanded high intensity performances from his players and is it just coincidence or bad luck that our new manager has quickly had the same problem?
My take is that if the same thing keeps happening then it is rarely bad luck, it is down to something not being right that needs fixed.
As I said earlier, it's far too early to say whether having had nine players out so early in the season is an indicator of what is likely to follow.
But if the number remains high, and especially if the cause is muscle injuries, it won't be down to bad luck.
It could yet be a tough season...
And we need as many troops available as possible to fight it out.
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Good morning all. When you see what pottsclock has put up , that 830 odd million city's owners have added on top is scandulous. Thats over 90m a season on average.
How many advantages have they given themselves.
We will never know what and where they'd have finished or what they had achieved without cooking the books , but that 830m is so blatant .
Year after year . Once alone should be a hefty punishment. A bigger punishment than what everton and forest ended up getting.
With everything that's gone on and how cynical they have been , for me they have to be thrown out of the PL and be given multiple point deductions over a number of…
This table, in particular, is astounding
City officials will continue to proclaim their innocence even if they lose their appeal. They should be hit even harder if they do appeal and lose it.
Just own it.
Say it was the only way to compete.
They hope this whole saga drags on so long that everyone loses interest or just concedes a lesser punishment to get it over with.
I have to say I'm surprised how damning the PL statement is - normally they would use flowery language but this pulls no punches with continuous use of the word sham such as sham contracts etc.
God knows what the punishment will be although I do have some sympathy with the players - if you work for an organisation you've no idea what's going on at executive level!