'Normal day' - 29-year-old defender spotted at St James' Park amid Newcastle United injury crisis

Former Newcastle United defender Jetro Willems returned to St James' Park over the weekend.

Willems joined Newcastle on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt in 2019, scoring twice in 20 appearances before suffering an ACL injury that cut his spell short. After recovering from injury, the Dutch left-back had brief stints at Bundesliga side Greuther Fürth and Eredivisie side Groningen before joining Heracles in the summer.

Despite his short spell on Tyneside, Willems' affinity with the club and its supporters has remained. The 29-year-old has returned to Tyneside on more than one occasion since his departure.

On Saturday, he posted a selfie of himself outside St James' Park along with the caption: "Just a normal day (at my old office) #NUFC."

Willems has also previously expressed his desire to sign for Newcastle on a permanent basis.

Although that ship has likely sailed, Newcastle are in the midst of an injury crisis at the moment with Willems' arrival on Tyneside ironically coinciding with the fact that left-backs Dan Burn, Matt Targett and Lewis Hall are all unavailable to face Chelsea this Saturday (3pm kick-off).

Burn and Targett are both set to be out until early 2024 with respective back and hamstring injuries while Hall is ineligible to play against his parent club.

Willems has made 11 appearances for Heracles so far this season with the side sitting 13th in the Dutch top flight.

Clubs are currently on a two-week break from playing as the November internationals take place. Willems has been capped 22 times by the Netherlands national team but all of his caps came before his 23rd birthday - his last coming in 2016.