Callum Wilson was back among the goals much to Eddie Howe’s delight

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Callum Wilson hasn’t exactly been at his best for Newcastle United since he returned from World Cup duty with England but yesterday he came off the bench to score against Manchester United.

Wilson said on the Footballer’s Football Podcast last week the he felt refreshed following Newcastle‘s trip to Dubai for warm-weather training and he certainly looked it yesterday.

Eddie Howe was full of praise for the £20million former Bournemouth striker at full time telling NUFC TV: “He deserved that goal because he trained really well during the International break.

Eddie Howe is ‘delighted’ to have Wilson back on the scoresheet

“The first time we have really had him to work with for a sustained period and he’s looked really sharp and really good. Delighted for him.”

Callum Wilson has been in and out of training since he returned from Qatar with injuries and illnesses which is what Howe meant when he said it’s ‘the first time we’ve had him to work with for a sustained period’. Hopefully whatever niggles Wilson has been dealing with are behind him now and he’s back to his best.

Thankfully, Alexander Isak has stepped up to fill the void, more than stepped up actually, he’s been phenomenal. Now Wilson will have to be back to his best to stand a chance of displacing Isak in the starting line-up.

Games are coming thick and fast in April so there will be opportunities for Eddie Howe to change things up as he balances his squad in terms of fitness and tiredness.

Wilson will get his chance to shine in a busy April

Newcastle play on Wednesday night and then again on Saturday. Three games in 6 days will take its toll on the squad so I expect to see Howe swapping Wilson and Isak around a couple of times.

Hopefully Wilson will use the goal he scored yesterday as the catalyst to come back firing and we’ll see a return to the form he was showing in the back half of 2022 that got him called up to the World Cup squad in the first place.

They do say form is temporary, class is permanent and that’s what Newcastle fans are hoping is true in Wilson’s case as there were beginning to be rumbles of fans being more than happy to let Wilson go in Summer. A few more goals to see out the season will put that talk to bed.