Sven Botman has been ruled out for Newcastle United until the end of the year with an ACL injury.
Botman’s 2023-24 campaign was plagued by knee issues before his season was eventually cut short in March with a second ACL injury that required surgery. The defender was given a six to nine month timescale for a return along with fellow defender Jamaal Lascelles.
Now it looks as though the 24-year-old will return at the later end of the timescale given for a return.
Last month, Eddie Howe provided an update on Botman and Lascelles as he told reporters: “I wouldn’t expect either player back certainly for months. I think they are sort of around about halfway through their timetable of recovery.
“So a long way ahead for both players.”
Howe’s Newcastle injury updates are often vague regarding return dates and availability with the Newcastle boss not wanting to put too much focus on the specifics of his players’ recoveries.
But Newcastle’s sporting director Paul Mitchell adopted a different approach and was straight to the point when providing an update on Botman’s situation.
“Sven comes back in December, another massive impact of quality,” he said. “What has been lost this [transfer] window, we have added internally with less games, squad availability will be much higher, getting big status starting XI players back into the starting XI and ultimately a second record signing in Sandro Tonali back into the team, that’s added to the quality.
“There’s always ways of adding value to your squad, but it’s about your pre-determined strategy going in. You’ve got to create different scenarios.”
Paul Mitchell is Newcastle United’s new sporting director. (Photo by VALERY HACHE / AFP)Paul Mitchell is Newcastle United’s new sporting director. (Photo by VALERY HACHE / AFP)
Paul Mitchell is Newcastle United’s new sporting director. (Photo by VALERY HACHE / AFP) | AFP via Getty Images
Newcastle’s new performance director James Bunce is overseeing each player’s return-to-play programmes with the aim of increasing availablity after an injury-hit 2023-24 campaign.
Mitchell, who worked with Bunce previously at AS Monaco, added: “The problem at Monaco when we inherited the project was we had a lack of squad availability which was really impactful in the performance, so it created that vicious cycle.
“And obviously what we witnessed last year [at Newcastle] was the same thing. I think Eddie did a really good job, but a lack of squad availability definitely impacts every coach.
“If you don’t have your best players, you’re not going to beat your optimum. So was it an area there that I think everyone from Eddie to ownership to Darren [Eales], we need to get better in this context because when we arrive in a free game schedule week again, we need to make sure our players are resilient athletes that can perform every couple of days.
“So, I think there was definitely an aligned view of this is crucial to make sure we learn lessons from the past, to make sure we don’t have that again. And I think that really excites us this year to think if we get that right now, and with the game schedule.
“If we can once again keep the players fit, keep the players focused, keep the players resilient, we have got a really good team. We won’t need to rotate as much as others, because we’re not in that really difficult [fixture] cycle to manage.
“All of those indicators points at me and makes me excited to go, like, we can have a really good season this year.
“Is European placement in some context a realistic target? Yes. Would we like more? Of course we would, we’re football fans. But it does fill me with excitement with what we currently have.”
