The 'difficult' injury to Newcastle United player being assessed by medical team

The 22-year-old midfielder suffered a knee injury in loan club Colchester United’s Boxing Day game against Gillingham.

Speaking after the game, Colchester manager Matt Bloomfield said: “Matty looks like he's sustained a serious knee injury. I hope it's not as bad as first feared, but, sometimes, the worst ones are. He's in tears inside, and I couldn't feel for him any more than I do right now."

Longstaff – who is in the final year of his Newcastle contract – is having his injury assessed on Tyneside.

"We’ve seen Matty,” said Eddie Howe. “Matty’s been in for a couple of days to get his knee assessed and checked. It does look like it’s potentially a difficult injury for him.

"I don’t know exactly the details of that. He’s going to have scans, and the extent will be revealed, but it doesn’t look good for him at the moment.”

Howe says the club will “nurse” Longstaff – who made a stunning first-team breakthrough at United in the 2019/20 season – back to fitness.

“He’s a brilliant lad,” said United’s head coach. “We really, really like him as a person. It’s a very difficult time when you’re contract’s coming up to get a potentially long-term injury is a real difficult one for him, but we’ll support him as a team, as a club, and make sure we fully nurse him back to full fitness.”

Longstaff’s elder brother Sean has been a fixture in Howe’s Newcastle side in recent months.