Jonjo Shelvey to undergo surgery, miss next three months

Craig Hope from the Daily Mail is reporting what every Newcastle supporter definitely did not wwant to find in their notifications today: Jonjo Shelvey will potentially miss the next 12 weeks of the season after undergoing surgery to fix his hamstring injury.

Shelvey, who got injured in the pre-season while facing Benfica in late July, is expected to recover in time to make a comeback for the final game or two of November. With the World Cup break in place this year it might make sense for Newcastle to give him an extra month of recovery instead of rushing the veteran back to the pitch.

Of course, Shelvey completed part of the summer camps with the Magpies but never got to play any sort of competitive game prior to this news. That means that he will need to re-gear-up once he’s back fully fit, which means that the free-of-football month between mid-November and mid-December might actually be an extraordinary event in Shelvey’s schedule for him to take advantage of.

Shelvey profiled as a key rotational piece for Eddie Howe this season—along with Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff, and only behind Bruno and Joelinton—but Howe and Newcastle will now face another tough decision in assessing this injury and the impact it might have on the Magpies midfield.

Elliot Anderson, the Geordie Maradona and biggest Tyneside hope, is undoubtedly now staying put and not going gout on loan away from St James’ Park. But we’ll see if Howe considers that enough of a reinforcement or if he asks the board to prioritize—or at least, balance—the addition of both a forward and a midfielder for the first half of the season while Shelvey remains out and unavailable.

We’ll keep you updated about the repercussion of this news and how it might bring new names to the rumor table during the next few days and leading up to the transfer deadline scheduled to take place on Sep. 1, less than four weeks from today.