Eddie Howe has provided an update on Yoane Wissa’s injury situation at Newcastle United amid suggestions the forward should miss AFCON.
Yoane Wissa is still expected to be weeks away from making his Newcastle United debut following his £55million transfer from Brentford on deadline day.
Days after the move, Wissa suffered a knee injury while on international duty with DR Congo. The injury was later confirmed as a posterior cruciate ligament injury and given an eight-week return prognosis.
Wissa is yet to train fully with his new teammates, but Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe is hopeful of seeing the forward in competitive action before the November international break.
The Magpies last match before the break is away to none other than Wissa’s former club Brentford on November 9 (2pm kick-off).
Eddie Howe provides Yoane Wissa injury update
“We’ve seen Yoane back on the grass, the first time on the grass, which is great to see,” Howe said. “He’s reacted pretty well to that work so far. Now it’s a case of trying to step him up naturally.
“In terms of timelines, it’s similar to what I said last time, nothing has changed.
“I think he's been managed by the physio team and the doctors really well so far. He's responded well to the treatment. I think the specialist initially gave him a diagnosis of six to eight weeks.
“And he's on track for that. So we were obviously trying to work towards the six, but it looks like it's going to be more towards the eight, as I said before. But there's been no issues.
“I know there's been a lot of media noise around his injury, but a lot of that's been false information. So we're just working towards that time scale. It's a PCL injury.”
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Yoane Wissa’s international dilemma
After the Brentford match, Wissa’s national side DR Congo face a crucial World Cup play-off match against Cameroon.
The winners of that match would then face either Gabon or Nigeria for a place at next summer’s 2026 World Cup in North America.
In December, DR Congo will then take part in the African Cup of Nations, which could rule Wissa out of action for another month and up to seven Newcastle matches should he head to the tournament in Morocco with his country.
Given Wissa’s lack of club football and injury situation, there have been calls for the forward to stay at Newcastle rather than go on international duty.
And Newcastle legend Alan Shearer gave his thoughts on the debate earlier this week.
“It will be a really difficult decision for Wissa not to go to AFCON because you always want to represent your country but what I would say is, because of him not training or playing during the summer, he could've shown more responsibility in not playing as much as he did in those two games when he went away on international duty and hadn't played at all,” Shearer said.
“But it's really tough to say to someone they can't and won't represent their country when it means so much. And we know AFCON is huge and players want to play in that tournament.
“It'll be a tough ask, but I understand that there'll be a lot of people thinking that he's never played for Newcastle and he needs to show some loyalty towards us.
“I get it and understand that point-of-view because Newcastle shelled out a lot of money on him and he hasn't been able to take to the St James' Park turf as yet. It'd be a really tough decision for him and Newcastle. Whether there's a way around it, I'm not so sure.”
Eddie Howe snubs AFCON talk
When Howe was asked for his thoughts on Wissa going away to AFCON, the Newcastle boss said: “I think just one step at a time for us.
“I think let's just focus on getting him fit and available first. I think that's all we can do. The medical team have been working really hard with him.
“I know he's absolutely desperate to get out and play and show his worth. And there's no doubting his qualities. Yeah, I think just one step at a time.”
But when pressed on Shearer’s comments and whether he wanted Wissa to stay at Newcastle instead of going away to AFCON, Howe added: “Yeah, that's a conversation and a topic that I'm not going to get involved in. I don't think that's fair for Yoane. So I haven't seen Alan's comments, but yeah, I think that's one I'll stay away from.”
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