Former Chelsea and West Ham defender Kurt Zouma is a genuine option for Newcastle if they want to bring in an emergency centre-back for the second half of the season, according to reports.
Fabian Schar has been ruled out until April with an ankle injury, leaving manager Eddie Howe with three options in the middle of defence – Malick Thiaw, Sven Botman and Dan Burn.
It is not an ideal situation, considering that Burn has only just returned from a punctured lung, and Botman is injury-prone.
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Chronicle Live journalist Lee Ryder says Zouma is someone that the club are aware is “available”, having become a free agent earlier this month.
Why is Zouma without a club?
The 31-year-old put pen to paper on a two-year contract (with an option for another 12 months) when he joined Romanian top division side CFR Cluj last summer.
However, Zouma only played four games before he agreed to leave by mutual consent on January 10th. He is currently searching for his next club.
It should be pointed out that the defender has been suffering from knee issues for the last few years, and it is one of the reasons why he has struggled to find a team playing in one of Europe’s top leagues.
Howe has suggested that Newcastle won’t be signing anyone
It doesn’t look like a move for Zouma isn’t currently on the cards, even though it appears to have been under consideration at some point.
Speaking about potential incomings at the weekend, the manager was pretty clear that he wasn’t expecting anything to happen before the February 2nd deadline:
“We have the players we have and we need to find a solution with those players. There’s no point in me thinking we need another type of player at this point because it’s not going to happen. The next chance we have to change the squad is the summer so it’s about getting the best out of the players we have.”
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