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Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe has provided a fresh injury on Sven Botman and Fabian Schar ahead of Saturday’s match against Ipswich Town.
Schar was withdrawn in Newcastle’s 4-1 defeat at Aston Villa last time out with a hamstring issue while Botman hasn’t featured for the club since picking up a knee injury in the 2-0 Carabao Cup semi-final second leg win over Arsenal back in February.
Botman was thought to be close to a return before undergoing surgery that ultimately delayed his return to action. But now the defender is back in training and pushing to be back involved.
Newcastle host Ipswich knowing a win would take them back up to third in the Premier League table. But anything other than a win for Ipswich on Saturday (3pm kick-off) would mathematically relegate them with four games still to play.
Botman has been sidelined for over 11 weeks with a knee injury that initially wasn’t suspected to be serious but ultimately required surgery. The 25-year-old has started just five games for Newcastle this season due to an ACL injury followed by his latest knee issue but reports from the club have been positive in recent weeks.
The defender has returned to training at Newcastle and will be pushing to return to the starting line-up before the end of the season. But after limited gametime over the past year, Newcastle have been cautious when it comes to his return to action.
Botman trained ahead of the match at Aston Villa but did not make the journey with Newcastle assistant manager Jason Tindall hinting he could be back involved against Ipswich.
But, in a slight U-turn, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe stressed that is ‘still very early stages’.
“Sven’s trained well this week and it’s been great to see him back on the grass,” Howe said. “So, yeah, really, really pleased with how he looked. It’s still very early stages for him, but back training with the group is a big step.”
Schar has scored in each of Newcastle’s last two Premier League matches but was withdrawn after finding the net at Villa Park.
After the game Tindall said: “Fabi was feeling his hamstring in the game, so he felt it was the wise move to bring him off and to try and protect him, to make sure that hopefully he’s okay for the remaining games.”
Although the Swiss defender hasn’t been spotted in training this week, Howe provided a small but promising update in his pre-match press conference.
He simply said: “Fabian, we hope will be okay [to play v Ipswich].”
Ipswich sit 18th, 15 points adrift of West Ham United in 17th with five games left to play and significantly worse goal difference. Even if Ipswich were to pull of a surprise win at St James’ Park on Saturday, there’s a feeling that it would only prolong the inevitable.
Both teams head into the match with some injury concerns. Ipswich will be without Kalvin Phillips, Sammie Szmodics, Jaden Philogene, Arijanet Muric, Omari Hutchinson, Chiedozie Ogbene and Wes Burns. Boyhood Newcastle fan Leif Davis has also been denied a St James’ Park appearance due to suspension.
Newcastle’s absentee list isn’t quite as long with Lewis Hall and Jamaal Lascelles the only confirmed absentees. Lascelles will be looking to be back in contention before the end of the season after more than a year out with an ACL injury while Hall is targeting a pre-season return following foot surgery.
