Newcastle United 'serious' injury blow confirmed as key man ruled out for three months
Newcastle United injuries: Eddie Howe provided a further update on Fabian Schar’s injury following surgery on Thursday.
Fabian Schar is facing around three months on the sidelines for Newcastle United following surgery on his ankle injury picked up against Leeds United.
Schar was stretchered off during Newcastle’s 4-3 win at St James’ Park last week and had surgery in London on Thursday.
Afterwards, he took to social media to issue an update from hospital.
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Fabian Schar issues NUFC injury update
Schar took to Instagram on Thursday to post an image of himself in a hospital bed with his left ankle heavily bandaged. The Swiss centre-back was sat up smiling with his thumb up as he issued a positive update.
“Thank you for all the well wishes over the past few weeks,” he wrote. “It means a lot! The prognosis is better than first feared…and most importantly, the surgery went well in London today!
“I’ll be supporting the boys from the stands in the meantime and can’t wait to get back out there 🖤🤍.”
Schar later shared the post to his Instagram story with the message: “I’ll be back.”
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Eddie Howe reveals Fabian Schar injury prognosis
Providing a further update on Schar’s injury and potential return timeframe, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe said: “He had a successful surgery yesterday, which is great news.
“Everything went according to plan. I think, difficult to give a definitive, but I think roughly around three months I think will be the diagnosis that we'll work towards, if it's any quicker than great.
“But I think we need to give Fabian now the time to recover. It's quite a serious injury.”
Schar’s injury leaves Newcastle short of options defensively, though Howe is hopeful of welcoming back Dan Burn after more than a month out with broken ribs and a punctured lung.
On Burn, Howe added: “He's improving. He's running, which is a really good thing. His fitness will be okay.
“That won't be an issue. It'll just be managing the pain of his injury. So, it's not like he's been sort of rested and not on the grass.
“I've seen him. He looks in good shape. It's just the pain, I think, the top-end pain when he's fully sprinting. So, hopefully, not long.”
Tino Livramento is also facing an extended spell on the sidelines with a hamstring injury picked up against Bournemouth last weekend.
It leaves Newcastle with just four fit senior defenders heading into Sunday’s Premier League fixture at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Lewis Hall, Malick Thiaw, Sven Botman and Kieran Trippier are the only available defenders Howe has to choose from as he has recently resorted to playing 19-year-old midfielder Lewis Miley in defence to provide another option and ease the pressure.
On Sunday, Newcastle face bottom of the table Wolves who have recently responded to 12 successive losses with a four game unbeaten run.
On the Wolves match, Howe said: “I think they're in a better place. I think Rob's a very good manager.
“He's come in and I think he's given them a clear way of playing, a clear structure. And I think they're playing with freedom, actually.
“I think they're playing some really good football. Statistically, they've been a bit of an outlier this year. Their form has not been statistically as bad as the results that they've got and that's been all season.
“So I think they've been unlucky not to have more points. I think from our perspective, we don't underestimate anybody. We respect everyone. We need to make sure that we're mentally in our best place because, as I said, this is such an important game and we can't take anybody lightly.”