‘Excellent’ 29-year-old Newcastle man pictured training as comeback after long layoff nears

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Newcastle United’s official site released its usual training pictures yesterday which saw a lot of players breaking a cardinal rule of football.

As the remaining members of Newcastle‘s squad who aren’t away on international duty reported for training on Friday they probably weren’t expecting to be playing rugby, but that’s what happened.

Eddie Howe has many different training methods but it seems he’s now looking to other sports for inspiration as he put his players through a rugby-inspired training drill on Friday .

Emil Krafth was pictured in Newcastle’s rugby-inspired training

Pictured amongst the group getting involved in all the action was Sweden international Emil Krafth who is still on the road to recovery following an ACL injury in the Carabao Cup game against Tranmere a year ago.

At one point it looked like Krafth was going to recover before the end of last season, but we’re now four games into the new campaign and he’s still not been deemed fit enough for duty.

Seeing the 29-year-old back in full training is definitely a positive sign, however and it now looks like he could be near to a return to full fitness.

Krafth will have a fight on his hands to break back into the first team

After signing Tino Livramento and failing to move on Javier Manquillo, it remains to be seen how much of a part the £5million former Amiens man will play this season, but after impressing under Eddie Howe when filling in for Kieran Trippier, it’s safe to assume he’ll be given a shot at some point.

Krafth never really got the Geordies off their seats at Newcastle until he was thrown in as cover for Kieran Trippier who had a spell on the sidelines shortly after his arrival on Tyneside. Krafth put in some top quality performances with Howe calling him ‘excellent‘ following the match against Crystal Palace in April 2022.

After a year on the sidelines it will undoubtedly take Krafth a while to get up to speed again which will explain his exclusion from the List A squad for the Champions League.