Newcastle United new signing Yoane Wissaplaceholder image
Newcastle United new signing Yoane Wissa | Getty Images, Newcastle United
Yoane Wissa: How many games will Newcastle United’s £55m signing miss due to injury and AFCON?
Yoane Wissa’s impact at Newcastle United during his first half-season on Tyneside could prove to be limited with the forward already ruled out for a number of games.
Wissa’s Newcastle debut will be delayed by a knee injury picked up on international duty with DR Congo last week.
It is understood the injury will rule the 29-year-old out until at least the next international break, meaning he’ll miss a minimum of seven matches in total.
Wissa sat out Newcastle’s 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers at St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon and will remain sidelined for the upcoming games against Barcelona, AFC Bournemouth, Bradford City, Arsenal, Union SG and Nottingham Forest.
If he is back for the trip to Brighton & Hove Albion after the October international break, it will have been almost five months since his last game of club football.
If his road to recovery goes as expected and he is available in around five weeks, he will only be back for a couple of months before being ruled out again due to the African Cup of Nations.
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Yoane Wissa set for AFCON
If fit, Wissa is set to go away with the DR Congo national team for the African Cup of Nations between December and January.
DR Congo’s first group stage game will take place on December 23 against Benin in Morocco. The group stages matches will run through to December 30.
As a result, Wissa would miss a minimum of three Premier League matches against Chelsea, Manchester United and Burnley.
Should DR Congo progress to the knockout stages, he would also miss the home match against Crystal Palace and potentially Leeds United as well. Progress to the quarter-finals would rule Wissa out of Newcastle’s FA Cup third-round tie while progressing to the semi-final would rule him out of the visit to Wolverhampton Wanderers on January 17.
In that situation, Wissa would also be a doubt for Newcastle’s Champions League tie against PSV Eindhoven, which takes place on January 21, three days after the AFCON final and four days after the third-place play-off.
Overall, Wissa will miss a minimum of three matches for Newcastle but could miss up to eight matches if DR Congo progress to the latter stages of the tournament. Added to the seven games he has already been ruled out for since signing, Wissa will be absent for at least 10 Newcastle matches before even kicking a ball for the club.
That number could rise as high as 15 games should DR Congo progress to the later stages of the competition.
Eddie Howe on Yoane Wissa signing
Wissa joined Newcastle from Brentford on deadline day for £55million, adding a proven Premier League goalscorer to Eddie Howe’s forward line after selling Alexander Isak to Liverpool.
Wissa scored 19 Premier League goals for Brentford last season, the same number of non-penalty goals as Isak with only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah scoring more.
On Wissa, Howe said: “He's an established Premier League goalscorer which is very difficult to find, difficult to recruit, I think he's got really good qualities, he had an outstanding year not just last year but the last few years in the Premier League, so he's got a history of scoring goals.
“He's done well against us and been a difficult player for us to handlewhen we've come up against him and I really admire the journey that he's been on to get to this point because it's not been easy for him, he's had big steps to make in his career but he's always adjusted and made them so hopefully he can do the same with us.”
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