Newcastle United star's injury 'heartbreak' after being ruled out for three months

Joe Willock admitted there were mixed emotions as he scored on his return from injury in Newcastle United's 4-1 defeat at Arsenal on Saturday.

Willock has suffered with injuries all season, missing the start of the campaign due to a hamstring and Achilles issues before briefly returning and suffering a set-back with his Achilles. The 24-year-old has missed 30 games in total for Newcastle this season due to injury in what he has described as one of the 'hardest' spells in his career.

"It was a bittersweet feeling," Willock told NUFC TV about his return. "It's been a long journey for me on the sidelines and very heartbreaking to be honest and one of the hardest times of my career.

"I haven't been able to be with my team-mates that I love so much. They've helped me a lot and a real brotherhood in the club so it means a lot to come back and be back out on the pitch with them. I was wanting to win, unfortunately we didn't but I'm happy to be back and hopefully I can stay back now and stay fit."

When asked if the feeling of scoring made him feel better after such a long time out, Willock responded: "Not really to be honest. I wanted to win today, help the team get three points because we'd put in so much hard work this week.

"The managers have given us exactly what we needed to do and we just come up short today which is unfortunate. We can look onto Tuesday [at Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup] and really put things right."