After suffering an injury on international duty not long after completing his move to Newcastle United, Yoane Wissa will now be forced to wait even longer to make his debut for the club.
Howe “excited” by Newcastle vs Barcelona
Whilst qualifying for the Champions League undoubtedly helped them on the financial front, the reason why the competition is truly special is weeks like this. For the first time in over 22 years, Barcelona square off against Newcastle at St James’ Park, with the Magpies back on the big stage and hoping to cause quite the upset.
There’s no escaping the quality that Barcelona have in abundance under Hansi Flick and that may frighten some. Eddie Howe is not one of those, however. Instead, the prospect of squaring off against one of Europe’s best sides excites him, as he told reporters.
“When we were drawn against Barcelona, it had a magical feel to it. I’m really excited to sample the atmosphere – I think it will be an incredible thing again.
“We will try to get a positive result and prepare the players for the game. I’m looking forward to how we match up against them and there is a lot of confidence restored after winning on Saturday.”
The last time that Newcastle were in the Champions League, they shocked Paris Saint-Germain in Tyneside with a 4-1 thrashing. Now, two years on, they’ll be hoping to use the magic of St James’ Park to create another historic moment.
That said, they will have to do so without summer signing Wissa. The forward waited all summer for his move before finally getting his wish on deadline day. From there, he’d have been hoping to instantly feature, only to suffer the most untimely injury blow on international duty. Now, a new potential debut date has been set.
When Wissa could make Newcastle debut
As confirmed by Howe, Wissa will be sidelined until after the October international break, which should see him return by October 18. It’s then that he could be in contention to make his Newcastle debut against Brighton & Hove Albion in one month’s time. Barring any setbacks, the forward will be keen to get going as soon as he is fit and firing.
Whilst Howe did provide some hope of a quicker recovery by admitting that “it’s always flexible”, Newcastle should avoid rushing Wissa back before he is ready. The last thing they need is for their new signing to pick up another injury blow not long after returning.
In the meantime, the 29-year-old will miss games against Barcelona, Bournemouth, Bradford City, Arsenal, Union Saint-Gilloise and Nottingham Forest. It’s far from the start that he hoped for when he finally put pen to paper in Tyneside.
With six games in the next month, Newcastle must also hope that their other new striker, Nick Woltemade, picks up where he left off after his debut goal against Wolves in Wissa’s absence.
