£10m Newcastle player could now be back from injury far sooner than expected

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Newcastle United’s injury problems are slowly starting to resolve with another player now expected to return ahead of schedule.

Newcastle have suffered a whole host of injuries this season – at one point they had an entire starting 11 with every position filled with unavailable players.

Nick Pope has been missing since the start of December when he injured his shoulder in a 1-0 win over Man United, but a new report from The Times has suggested he could make his return to Newcastle in mid March.

Pope could return to Newcastle sooner than expected

When he first picked up the injury, it was being predicted that the shot-stopper would be facing a very lengthy spell out of the team, with some sources suggesting the healing time was up to five months.

That would have kept him out for the majority of the season and pretty much killed any hopes he had of being selected for England for the upcoming European Championships in the summer.

Now, there’s a good chance Pope will still have a huge part to play in the rest of Newcastle’s season as they fight for an FA Cup and to return to Europe by climbing the Premier League table.

Martin Dubravka has stepped in for the £10m goalkeeper and, while he has impressed more recently after a tricky start, Eddie Howe will be pleased to have his star man recovering ahead of schedule.

Newcastle’s injury crisis is starting to resolve

It’s been a long season for Newcastle so far with the number of injuries and unavailable players seemingly never ending, with Joelinton being the latest to pick up a long-term problem.

For the majority of the season, Newcastle have been without Sandro Tonali, Joe Willock, Harvey Barnes, Jacob Murphy and Elliot Anderson.

It’s especially frustrating for Howe who has come under a lot of pressure for the poor results Newcastle suffered in the last couple of months, but there was nothing he could have done to prevent the growing injury list.

Most of those are still yet to return to the team, but Howe is getting closer and closer to having a full strength squad at his disposal once again.