Forward sidelined until after the next international break, says Eddie Howe
Newcastle have been hit with a serious injury blow after manager Eddie Howe confirmed summer signing Yoane Wissa will be sidelined for up to a month.
It leaves only Nick Woltemade as the club’s established out-and-out striker.
Wissa joined the club from Brentford on deadline day for £55m, but sustained an injury while on international duty. Howe said it was particularly frustrating because there had been careful management of the player at club level.
“Everyone wanted Yoane to be fit,” Howe said. “There’s nothing personally I would have done differently. We did everything we did as a football club to try to look after Yoane.
“But it’s like with any footballer when they go away on international duty, you’re not in control of the minutes they play and, unfortunately, he gets injured and now we just have to deal the best we can with that situation.”
The absence of Wissa increases the responsibility on Woltemade, Newcastle’s other striker addition, who joined from Stuttgart in a club-record £69m move effectively as Alexander Isak’s replacement. The Germany international got off to a fabulous start after scoring 29 minutes into his Premier League debut against Wolves, but he is still adjusting to the physical demands of English football, said Newcastle’s manager.
“We’re going to have to look after Nick,” Howe said. “It’s hard enough for him to come into a new league and you could see the physical effects he felt with Wolves and then the quick turnaround again here [against Barcelona].
“There’s no guarantee even by managing him that he’s going to stay fit and play all the games, but we’re going to try to give him the best chance to stay fit and also acclimatise to the league that he’s in. But he’s made a very good start.”
Woltemade was surprisingly left on the bench for the crunch Champions League fixture on Thursday, and the absence of a striker was evident as Newcastle wasted many chances before going down to two brilliant goals from Marcus Rashford.
The German striker was eventually brought on in the second half and played a part in Newcastle’s late goal that raised some hopes of an equaliser, though that didn’t happen.
“He did well when he came on,” said Howe. “I was really pleased with him. He was involved in the goal, so he’ll hopefully be in a good place.”
The Newcastle boss said he was hoping to have Wissa back as soon as possible.
“We think he’ll be out until after the next international break,” said Howe. “He’s sort of got a race on to be fit for that Brighton game.
“Hopefully he can make it and then, of course, he’ll be such an important player for us.”
