Newcastle defender Emil Krafth is nearing the end of his recovery after ACL injury

Add as preferred source on Google

Having played just one minute of Premier League football for Newcastle United this season before an anterior cruciate ligament injury wrecked his season, Emil Krafth can finally see the light at the end of tunnel.

The Swedish right-back picked up the injury during the Carabao Cup win against Tranmere Rovers back in August, but as he nears the end of his recovery, he took the time to talk to the club’s official site about his time away from the squad.

Krafth was coming off the back of his best run of form since signing for £5million from Amiens in 2019. Filling in for Kieran Trippier at the back end of last season after the skipper picked up a metatarsal fracture against Aston Villa, Krafth’s performances earned him the nickname, Krafu from the Toon Army.

Krafth had just found his groove at Newcastle

In that sense, things were going really well for Krafth, he told NUFC.co.uk: “An injury is never great timing but, for me, I was playing a lot from January until the summer. The team were doing really well and I’d say it was the best form of my career so far. I felt I had a good pre-season and had also extended my contract with the club.”

Then disaster struck early into the new campaign when a collision with a Tranmere player resulted in Krafth having to be stretchered off the field. He was later told his recovery would take six to nine months.

Now, six months on, and after a long, arduous recovery journey, Krafth is back in football boots and running on grass after being ‘locked away in a bunker’ training indoors away from the rest of the squad: “For four or five months, I’d been going into the gym, or the bunker as I called it because you couldn’t see training, so it was then a big relief to step outside, put the football boots back on and just run.”

What does the future hold for Krafth?

Eddie Howe included Krafth in his 25-man squad for the second half of the season which must have come as a huge boost for the man capped 42 times by Sweden, but it’s still early days yet and it’s not known if he will recover in time to feature for the Magpies again this season.

With Newcastle being constantly linked to full-backs too, it’s also a question whether Krafth will be part of Howe’s plans for next term with a huge squad shakeup expected in the summer. It would be a cruel blow for Krafth to be cast aside after such an horrific season, but sometimes football can be a cruel sport.