UPDATE: Kieran Trippier aiming to return for Newcastle’s clash against Manchester City

Wouldn’t it be fantastic from a narrative perspective?

Kieran Trippier, who arrived in Tyneside last January as part of Newcastle’s new owners' effort to bolster the squad, might be on his way to returning to the field this weekend.

Eddie Howe, speaking after the 0-1 loss to Liverpool, dropped a very interesting nugget of intel: “We’ll see how his training week progresses. Yes, that training session was yesterday (Friday), so he was never going to be in contention to play (against Liverpool). We’ll see how he progresses during the week.”

Trippier could only feature in four games for his new side, starting all four of them and playing a total of 316 minutes—he only came out substituted on the last one of those games after sustaining the broken foot injury that has kept him out of the field since Feb. 12. Trippier could still make the most of his little time with the squad bagging a couple of goals in the time he was fit to play and surely showing a leadership much needed by the Toon to get out of the dark Premier League table depths.

Adding wood to the fire, Trippier just published a post on Instagram last Friday in which the only words he added were “Loading… @nufc ”. Of course, the comeback was never happening against Liverpool if only because of the risks that would have entailed in a game in which the Magpies were the clear underdog.

Now with a few more days of training, and still a few more for him to gear up and get readier for what is ahead, Trippier feels like coming back is closer than ever. And I couldn’t blame him for wanting to make it back to the field as soon as this Saturday. In case you don’t know, Trippier started his professional career at Man. City’s academy where he spent three seasons—all of them getting loaned out to Burnsley yearly— after ultimately getting moved to Burnley on a permanent basis ahead of the 2012-13 season, where he went on to play 145 games before hitting the spotlight with his transfer to Tottenham in 2015.

It’s time to close the circle and lead the Geordie Army to an upset of title-challenger Manchester City this weekend, and we’re all for it. Revenge game! Let’s go!