Losing Lewis Hall right before the Carabao Cup final was one of the few bad moments in what was otherwise the most successful season in living memory.
The youngster was producing excellent performances week in and week out, and was building a strong case for being England’s first choice left back.
But a broken bone in his foot, suffered against Liverpool in February, forced Hall to undergo surgery that would rule him out for the rest of the season.
And nearly six months later, the 20-year-old finally looks to be on the verge of returning, with the club revealing that he has spent the summer working with medical staff, is now back on the grass running and will resume ‘light ball work’ in the next few days.
In light of his absence and imminent return, the club have released an [in-depth interview](https://www.newcastleunited.com/en/news/lewis-hall-steps-up-return-from-injury) with Hall on his hopes heading into pre-season and the 2025/26 campaign.
Hall’s hopes for next season
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Eddie Howe’s side have a tough start to their next Premier League campaign, playing Aston Villa away on the opening weekend before hosting the champions Liverpool in our first home fixture.
Whilst Hall still has a long way to go until he’s back to full fitness, the Three Lions star has affirmed that he wants to be back and playing in pre-season, just in time for the new campaign to start.
“With any injury, especially a long-term one, it’s so up in the air. Some people can come back quicker, some people take a bit longer. It all depends on how everything goes.”
“For me, my aim is to be fit and ready to go for the first game of the season, but to do that, I’d like to have a few pre-season games as well beforehand.”
“The lowest point I’ve had in a long time”
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Hall then opened up on his road to recovery from injury, in particular just how tough it was to watch the Carabao Cup final at home instead of being at Wembley.
“The first few weeks especially were incredibly hard, with the final and stuff like that. I played in all the games beforehand, and to miss that final; I was obviously buzzing for the club, for everyone, but to not be there to celebrate…”
“It’s not so much that I wasn’t on the pitch, but to not be there to celebrate, that was probably the lowest point I’ve had in a long time. I was sat at home watching. That was difficult.”
Unable to travel to London whilst recovering from surgery looks to have only motivated Hall even further to be back on the pitch and in front of the St James’ Park crowd as soon as possible.
The club has stated that they hope Hall to be able to complete ‘light ball work’ on the pitch in the near future, before gradually being eased back into the senior squad where he belongs.
“I’ve just done 12 weeks non-weight bearing, which is obviously a long time, so to go from that to what I’m doing now is really good.”
“With the amount of time I was hobbling about before, it takes a while to get used to again but I feel like I’m getting there now. It’s just about building slowly.”
Surgery proved to be the right call
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Hall went under the knife at the recommendation of doctors, and even though we’ve seen instances where defenders like Botman avoided surgery in order to keep playing, does Hall have any regrets about having the surgery and missing out on the Carabao Cup final win?
“It was definitely the right decision in terms of security and making sure that I come back fit and firing for this season.”
“As gutted as I was – and I think I underestimated how I would feel – it was definitely the right decision.”
But with a return to the Champions League on the horizon, Hall expresses extreme optimism over his future on Tyneside, particularly with the support of the club and fans behind him.
“It’s hard to explain – I felt so much support from people at the club, but in a sense you almost feel like sometimes you get forgotten about a little bit, even though I only missed 11 league games.”
“But it makes me want to come back and sort of prove a point again, and show everyone what I can bring back to the team.”
“I want to show people what I was doing before I was injured and, if anything, come back a better, stronger player for it. I can’t wait.”