Lewis Hall has revealed his ambitions to be fit for Newcastle United’s opening Premier League game of the season against Aston Villa.
The Magpies have a difficult start to next season’s Premier League, with a trip to Villa Park followed by a home clash against Liverpool to kick-off their 2025/26 campaign. Newcastle took just one point from the corresponding fixtures last season and will be desperate to register more this time around and get their campaign off to the best possible start.
With a packed pre-season schedule that sees them face Celtic, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid among others, Eddie Howe’s side have the perfect opportunity to really hit the ground running in August. For Lewis Hall, that trip to Villa Park marks a chance to make his first Premier League appearance since February.
The former Chelsea man was forced to undergo surgery on a foot injury in March and missed the final three months of last season due to that injury. That meant the 20-year-old was forced to watch on as his teammates qualified for the Champions League and defeated Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final to end the club’s seven-decade wait for a major domestic trophy.
Lewis Hall targeting Aston Villa return
Whilst all of Howe’s squad will be aiming to impress the head coach during pre-season and be named in his first starting XI of the campaign, Hall will be particularly determined to regain his place as Newcastle’s starting left-back. In a recent interview, the defender admitted that starting at Villa Park was his ultimate aim this summer.
“With any injury, especially a long-term one, it's so up in the air," Hall told newcastleunited.com. “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.”
By the time August rolls around, Hall will have been sidelined for five months, missing not just success at club level but also the opportunity to add to his two senior England caps and potentially represent the U21’s at this summer’s U21 European Championship alongside Tino Livramento.
During a difficult time whilst on the sidelines, Hall revealed that support from physios Alix Ronaldson and Nathan Ring, conditioning coach Sean Miller, the rest of the Magpies’ medical department and some of his teammates have helped him get through to the place he is now - back on the grass: “All of the medical department have come together and had this plan for me, and they all help in different ways,” he said.
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“Alix and Nathan are the ones day to day who have to deal with me when maybe I'm not in a good mood or whatever, so they're probably the ones that I feel most grateful for - and Sean as well - because I work with them every day.
“A lot of the lads have tried to make me feel as part of the team as possible. I'll use Jamaal [Lascelles] as an example of that. Jam has been every day, even though he's back training, asking me how I am, him and Sven [Botman].
“Those two in particular have been keeping in contact every day, asking how I'm feeling and showing interest in what I'm doing. Little things like that go a long way, don't they?."
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