Sven Botman fitness update as Newcastle United defender ruled out v Arsenal
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Botman was in from the start in what was his first taste of competitive senior football since March 2024 after recovering from ACL surgery. Goals from Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak cancelled out Dominic Solanke’s opener at the Tottenham Hotspur.
Ahead of the match, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe confirmed Botman would be ‘available’ and in his thinking to start at Spurs.
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Hide AdAnd when asked about the decision to start Botman after almost 10 months out, Howe responded: “The thinking behind that is he has done the work and I wouldn’t play him unless I thought he was physically ready.
“He’s been very dedicated to his recovery, we’ve seen him put in an extraordinary amount of work before he started training with us and he’s been training with us now for six weeks I think. He’s had three games and looked good in those games, of course, he won’t be at his optimum level but that’ll come in the following months.
“But I thought he was physically and mentally ready to play. He was chomping at the bit to be involved again. It was a difficult start for him and the team when Tottenham scored but a great response. I thought he did very well today.”


Botman got through 90 minutes but limped off in stoppage time to be replaced by Lloyd Kelly. But Howe revealed after the match that there was no major issue with the Dutch defender.
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Hide Ad“I don’t think it was anything more than cramp for Sven,” Howe told The Gazette. “Which was expected given the amount of time he’s been out.
“It was a great effort from him to last that long. We were unsure how long he would be able to go for, with the speed of the Premier League. But thankfully he got through the majority of the game.”
Next up for Newcastle is a trip to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg on Tuesday evening (8pm kick-off). Botman is expected to be available for selection once again in that match.
After his return to action at Spurs, Botman took to social media to post the message: “Anything for this feeling again.”
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