Newcastle United star makes ‘difficult’ admission after 14-month injury blow

Targett started Newcastle United’s FA Cup win against Bromley last weekend, over 14 months after his previous start for the Magpies. A hamstring injury, suffered just a minute into their Carabao Cup win at Old Trafford back in November 2023, saw Targett sidelined for a number of months before an Achilles injury and a flare-up of eczema kept pushing back his eventual return date.

Since that initial injury at Old Trafford, Targett has had to watch on as Lewis Hall establishes himself as one of the Premier League’s very best in that position, whilst the former Aston Villa man has had to settle for the odd game with the Under-21’s as part of his recovery process. Speaking to the club in a piece for the matchday programme ahead of Saturday’s clash against Bournemouth - one Targett was not included in Eddie Howe’s matchday squad for, the defender was asked how his time out injured has been “Difficult. It has been very difficult, I’m not going to lie.” Targett responded.

“But the feeling I had after coming on against Villa [on Boxing Day] brought that feeling back where you haven’t played in so long and you start to miss the game. So, yeah, that brought a really, really good feeling back and then to start against Bromley and to play a fair bit of the game, it was nice for me. I’d played a couple of Under-21’s games, but it’s not the same, so it was nice to start again.”

The 29-year-old impressed greatly during an initial loan spell at St James’ Park during the second-half of the 2021/22 season, playing an important role as the Magpies avoided relegation. Target was set to begin the next campaign as the club’s starting left-back, but illness in the first few weeks of the season saw him lose his place to Dan Burn, with Howe then being able to pick from a very solid back four game in and game out as they went onto qualify for the Champions League.

Reflecting on his time at the club and the injuries he has suffered, Targett continued: “It’s been mad. Since I’ve joined really, some of the injuries I’ve had, it’s just crazy.

“When I did my hamstring away at Manchester United and then recovered from that, I think I was back for a week or two and then somehow I got a tear in my achilles, so that set me back another three or four months. Going into this season, I knew I’d miss all of pre-season with the team but would try and get back in and around the team for the first games. In my head, I was like ‘OK, it’s not great that I’ve missed all the pre-season games but I’m not missing too much of the season’.

“I was just focussing on trying to come back as strong as possible for that. And then I had the eczema flare-up, which was literally out of the blue and that knocked me for six, so that set me back a bit.”