Newcastle United midfielder Jonjo Shelvey is considered a doubt for Saturday’s game against Huddersfield Town, according to the Chronicle.
The newspaper claims that the Englishman saw a specialist in Barcelona this week in a bit to resolve his on-going thigh injury.
He is now back on Tyneside and is set for further assessment this week, but it appears unlikely that he will face David Wagner’s side at the John Smith’s Stadium.
However, centre back Florian Lejeune is in consideration for Saturday’s game having come through a reserve team game unscathed this week.
OPINION
This is undoubtedly a blow for Newcastle. While Shelvey hasn’t been a regular starter in recent weeks, that’s been due to injury and not because he’s fallen out of favour with manager Rafael Benitez. Mohamed Diame and Ki Sung-yueng have done a good job in the middle of the park, but this game with Huddersfield is the sort of occasion where you’d like Shelvey available. Huddersfield will defend resolutely throughout and will be difficult to break down, so Shelvey’s tremendous range of passing would have been useful for the Magpies on Saturday. He may still feature, but it appears that he will be on the bench at best. Hopefully, having now seen a specialist, Shelvey won’t be out for much longer – perhaps this is just a one game absence at this stage – and that is the best case scenario for Benitez’s team. Diame and Ki are decent players, but Shelvey remains the most talent central midfielder at St James’ Park.