Things are looking even better now with these Newcastle United injury updates.
On Thursday at his pre-match press conference for the Coventry City match, Matthias Jaissle stated: “We are hopeful there will be three or four back from the nine missing against Hull City.”
As a reminder, the nine injured players who were unavailable for that 2-1 victory over Hull City were Jaouen, Dedic, Ramsey, Elanga, Osula, Gonzalez, Burn, Livramento and Joelinton. On top of that, Lewis Miley came back to Tyneside early from the England Under 21s with an unspecified injury issue.
During his time so far at Newcastle United, we have already found out that Matthias Jaissle gives very little away during his press conferences ahead of matches.
There now appears a great chance that when the NUFC boss was suggesting “three or four” might return to the matchday squad on Monday, he was playing things down a little.
Matthias Jaissle did make clear on Thursday that Joelinton and Nico Gonzalez are two of the Newcastle United players who are set to return from injury at Coventry City tonight.
Since the international break ended, the club have put out plenty of footage on social media of first team training and both Gonzalez and Joelinton have indeed been seen to be heavily involved.
What about the other eight Newcastle United players with injury doubts though?
For starters, with Lewis Miley it certainly appears to have been nothing serious, he has also been seen heavily involved in training.
William Osula the same in training, he looks hopefully to be also now back available tonight.
Amar Dedic also seen in the training footage although not as heavily featured as others, so he is more of an unknown but certainly a possibility.
Now a sixth of the ten with injury concerns also spotted in the latest training footage, that is Jacob Ramsey. So like Amar Dedic, another possibility to return to the matchday squad. If not for the game against Coventry City, then certainly against his old club Villa on Saturday now looking positive.
As for the other four…
Ewen Jaouen definitely won’t be involved tonight, Matthias Jaissle on Thursday: “Ewen Jaouen will be out for two months with a hamstring injury.”
Anthony Elanga and Tino Livramento also appear certain to be missing, neither of them seen in any training footage, certainly not from what I have viewed.
That leaves one other.
Before the international break more than three weeks ago, United captain Dan Burn said: “My recovery is coming on well. I’m not in the cast anymore, so I’m walking around now and building up strength. The international break helps, so I don’t miss too many games, and if all goes to plan, I can be back for that first game after the break.”
However, from what I have seen in the club’s released footage, zero sign of the Big Lad from Blyth. So unless this has been an elaborate ruse to hide his return to full fitness, it doesn’t appear that Dan Burn will be involved tonight.
Overall though, a far more positive outlook for Matthias Jaissle with his team and bench options than was the case previously.