Newcastle United handed boost after injury setback - key man ready to face Man Utd
Lewis Hall bounced back from his latest fitness setback to impress for Newcastle United against his former club Chelsea over the weekend.
Lewis Hall is getting back to his best for Newcastle United after a difficult 2025 stifled by injuries.
The 21-year-old suffered a serious foot injury in February that ended his 2024/25 campaign early and prevented him from featuring in the Carabao Cup final win over Liverpool following surgery.
After returning to fitness, Hall was then ruled out for another month earlier this season due to a hamstring issue. It’s been a stop-start campaign for the young defender on the whole so far, as he has missed the odd match due to various fitness problems.
Lewis Hall getting back to his best for NUFC
But Hall has still been able to show his quality on the field. After missing the 2-1 win over Fulham in the Carabao Cup last week, Hall returned to the starting line-up against Chelsea and put in a strong display against his former club.
Despite wanting to play as many games as possible, having missed a lot of football this year, Hall will have to manage his load carefully given his recent history of injuries as well as Newcastle’s lack of options at full-back.
“You just want to be playing every game again,” Hall said. "But it's difficult, when you come back from a long-term injury it's quite common to get a shorter-term injury because you're not quite used to the load. That happened to me which is obviously annoying as I couldn't get the rhythm."
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The England international is the only natural senior full-back available to Eddie Howe at the moment with Kieran Trippier, Tino Livramento, Emil Krafth and Dan Burn all ruled out due to injury.
The defensive injury crisis has seen 19-year-old midfielder Lewis Miley fill in at right-back and Under-21s defender Alex Murphy brought into the squad to bolster the options at left-back. A potential loan recall for Matt Targett has also been discussed.
But for now, Newcastle will be relying on Hall as they look to put together a positive run of results and climb up the Premier League table heading into 2026.
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Lewis Hall reflects on Newcastle United injury absence
Although Hall has suffered a couple of minor setbacks since coming back into the side, he is confident he can continue to play regularly and stand up to the demands of playing multiple times a week.
"Now I'm back playing regular minutes, playing games twice a week and I'm feeling good after them, it makes everything worth it," Hall admitted via the Newcastle matchday programme.
"Even the last two seasons before my injury, in my academy days, I was never injured. You definitely take for granted just being able to put your boots on, go out on the grass and train every day. I think now I've had that injury I'll never take it for granted again.
"If I ever feel a bit moody before training, I'll just think of those times and it will put me in a better place again."