da bwin： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Injury News series, which considers the impact of the latest updates on players’ fitness.
da apostaganha： Newcastle’s Matt Ritchie is facing an extended spell on the sidelines following surgery on his ankle.
What’s the latest?
The versatile player hasn’t played a minute since a bad tackle by Hamza Choudhury forced him off in the Magpies’ Carabao Cup clash with Leicester City back in August.
Since then he has had surgery on his ankle, but that wasn’t quite enough to get him back into action, and he has now undergone a second bout under the knife in a bid to fix the issue.
Such major work means he isn’t expected to be back until January 2020, as long as his period of rehabilitation goes well up until that point and no more problems with his ankle arise.
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Reinforcements needed
Ritchie has been ever-present for Newcastle since he signed for the club upon relegation to the Championship in 2016, and his ability to play in a variety of positions would have been useful for Steve Bruce.
The Magpies boss began the season playing the 30-year-old at left wingback, which allowed him to carry his usual threat going forward while keeping an eye on things defensively.
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It is a position he has played in his career previously and it worked to great effect in the 1-0 win over Tottenham, but his absence now means that Jetro Willems is the only natural left wingback in the squad – with Paul Dummett occupying a more central role in recent games.
Without Ritchie, Newcastle are also down to bare bones on the wings too, with Christian Atsu the only remaining replacement available should Allan Saint-Maximin or Miguel Almiron become unavailable.
That should be a big concern for Bruce and shows that he is in need of new bodies in order to improve the strength in depth of the squad.
As a result, Mike Ashley has to back his manager accordingly in the January transfer window, as it is unlikely Ritchie will be back in the first-team by that point, considering it will take a few weeks to build up match fitness after missing what will be four months of action.
With Newcastle’s wingers yet to get firing there is a stronger case for that position to be strengthened, though whatever Bruce decides should be reciprocated with more funds from the owner.
Elsewhere, Newcastle have been preparing their shopping list for January and reportedly have a multi-million-pound target already in mind.