Newcastle United will likely have to wait until they play Watford for midfielder Jonjo Shelvey to return in a major pre-Christmas blow, according to the Chronicle.
The newspaper claims that the Magpies star is unlikely to come back from injury until the clash with the Hornets a week on Saturday.
The England international has been dealing with injury issues for some time now, and looks set to miss games against Fulham and Liverpool over the next week.
Mohamed Diame and Ki Sung-yueng have been manager Rafael Benitez’s preferred partnership in central midfield in Shelvey’s absence, however, the Chronicle’s report states that the South Korean will join up with his national team squad for the Asian Cup after Saturday’s game against Fulham.
OPINION
It is absolutely crucial that Shelvey returns as quickly as possible for Newcastle. With Ki going off to join his country for their pre-tournament training camp, Benitez suddenly finds himself scrambling for a solution in central midfield. With Shlevey not expected to be back until the Watford game that leaves out of favour Isaac Hayden and youngster Sean Longstaff as the options to partner Diame against Liverpool in mid week. Out of those two the Spaniard might be advised to throw the talented Longstaff into the mix, seeing as the clash with the league leaders is essentially a free hit for the Magpies. Still, the fact that Shelvey will be returning fairly soon is good news for the club. He’s missed a fair bit of football over the past couple of months and he’ll be keen to get involved again against Javi Gracia’s side. In the meantime, young Longstaff could have an opportunity to make an impact.