Fair to say that Anthony Elanga didn’t have the best of seasons in 2025/26 following his move from Nottingham Forest.
Also fair to say that the Sweden international has this season ‘looked likes a new signing’ with his displays.
The excellent early performances of Anthony Elanga under Matthias Jaissle topped off with a couple of outstanding goals against Liverpool and Tottenham.
Ahead of the Leeds game on Monday night it was a shock then for Newcastle United fans to find out that Anthony Elanga wasn’t in the matchday squad.
Ahead of kick-off the Newcastle United Head Coach explained his absence: “Unfortunately he is injured and we need to investigate further and in more detail, to find out how long he will be out. We will miss him and hope he is back to play quickly. It could be long-term, we hope not. He will get another MRI next week and we will see.”
Then after the Leeds defeat, Matthias Jaissle once again asked about the situation with the former Forest winger: “Obviously, Elanga is struggling with an injury, we now need to investigate further how serious it is, but at the moment it does not look that good.”
A lot of speculation about the nature of the Anthony Elanga injury and how serious it potentially is.
A certain amount of added clarity though on Thursday morning via an update from Craig Hope of The Mail, a journalist who has shown in the past that he has arguably the best sources within the club of any journalist, when it comes things like insight on injuries and recovery times.
This morning, Craig Hope reporting that: “The problem, say sources, is not knee related, despite speculation.”
The man from The Mail saying his information is that the injury is elsewhere: “This cannot be definitive, because another scan is scheduled, but my information coming out of Leeds was of a muscle injury in the hamstring area that would keep Elanga sidelined for around six-to-eight weeks. I know those inside the club are concerned about the gravity of the problem, but only when another MRI scan is complete will they communicate the full prognosis. Those tests, I’m told, are taking place this week.”
The fact that there are upcoming international breaks of three weeks and two weeks is for once maybe not such a bad thing when you consider the Newcastle United injury list (see below). Whilst the lack of European football also means far fewer matches to potentially miss.
Taking Craig Hope’s estimates/guesstimates of six to eight weeks where Anthony Elanga could likely be missing, here are a few markers.
If you go six weeks from Anthony Elanga getting injured in training ahead of the Leeds match, you have the Crystal Palace away match on Sunday 25 October. Between now and then there are only three Newcastle matches, against Hull (home), Coventry (away) and Villa (home), all in the Premier League.
If you go eight weeks then you have Fulham away on the weekend of Saturday 7 November. If say Anthony Elanga returned for that match he would have missed six games in total which are those Hull, Coventry, Villa and Palace ones, plus Everton away in the Carabao Cup AND the Toffees at home in the Premier League.
A two week international break then follows Fulham away and Newcastle United don’t play again until the weekend of Saturday 21 November against Arsenal. By that point Anthony Elanga would have had ten weeks to recover and have ‘only’ missed seven matches.
Here’s hoping he certainly isn’t out for any longer than that.
An early season injury crisis with it appears to be at least these seven Newcastle United players in danger of missing on Saturday by Hull City:
Dan Burn – Ankle/foot
Joelinton – Thigh
Jacob Ramsey – Thigh
William Osula – Ankle
Nico Gonzalez – Concussion
Ewen Jaouen – Ankle
Anthony Elanga -Unknown