Newcastle United have yet to make a decision on the future of Swedish international Emil Krafth.
It hasn’t been the best of times for Emil Krafth lately. The Sweden international who signed for Newcastle from Amiens for £5million in 2019 suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in just his second outing last season and missed the rest of the campaign while he recovered.
Now The Athletic suggest that the club will wait until he is fully recovered before making a decision on his future, saying: “Newcastle will make a decision on whether to renew Krafth’s deal once the right-back has fully recovered from the knee injury that has cost him almost this whole season. The Swede had already signed an extension last summer”
Krafth was very impressive when he covered for injured Trippier
The real shame is that it came off the back of Krafth finding his form at Newcastle while deputising for Kieran Trippier towards the back end of the 2021/22 season. Those games where he covered for Trippier saw Krafth playing the best football he’d ever played in a black and white shirt, with Eddie Howe calling him ‘excellent‘.
He was so good that Newcastle fans suddenly didn’t see the need to dip into the transfer market for a replacement player to be Trippier’s cover, and it seemed the club agreed.
Unfortunately, fate had other ideas and in the Carabao Cup tie against Tranmere Rovers in August, Krafth was stretchered off the field after just 39 minutes and was not seen on the pitch again all season.
At the turn of the year there was some hope that Krafth could recover in time to feature in in one of the final games of the season but that didn’t come to pass, and in fact, he’s still not deemed to be 100% recovered.
Newcastle will make a call on Krafth when he’s fully recovered
The club are holding out to assess his recovery before making a call on the future of the 28-year-old who only recently signed a contract extension off the back of his impressive performances in 2021/22.
It would certainly be a bit harsh if he was told to move on after suffering that horror injury, but at the same time, there is no room for sentimentality when you’re trying to compete at the top level. If the club feel that the injury has taken too much out of him and he’s not up to the required level, they will have to find him a new club.
Fingers crossed his recovery is strong and he can remain at the club and regain that form he showed.
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