Eddie Howe confirms Lewis Miley faces months sidelined with a fractured fibula, while Tino Livramento remains unlikely to feature during the Magpies' final push for points.
Newcastle United will be without Lewis Miley for their final three games of the season after Eddie Howe confirmed the midfielder faces “a few months out” with a fractured fibula.
The 20-year-old suffered the injury in training earlier this week and will now miss Newcastle’s remaining fixtures, starting with the Premier League clash against Nottingham Forest.
Newcastle confirmed in an official statement that Miley had fractured his fibula after sustaining the injury to his lower right leg during training on Tuesday. The club added that he would see a specialist consultant before continuing his rehabilitation with the medical team, with the expectation that he will return for the start of pre-season.
Howe has now provided more detail on how the injury happened, describing it as an unfortunate training-ground incident.
“It was an innocuous moment,” Howe said. “He was training on Tuesday, he slipped, no other player was involved. He was unable to continue, and it was a little more serious than we thought.
“The surgery went well, he now faces a few months out, we hope he will be back in and around pre-season. It is a shame as he was playing well, a real blow for us.”
Miley’s absence is a setback for Newcastle at an important stage of the campaign. He had been building momentum and has offered Howe flexibility in midfield, while also being capable of filling in at right-back when required.
The injury removes one of Newcastle’s useful squad options for the run-in and leaves Howe having to manage the final stretch without a player who had been contributing well.
Tino Livramento is also unlikely to return before the end of the season. The defender has been working his way back from injury, but Howe suggested Newcastle will not rush him before the summer.
“Tino is doing well, he is improving,” Howe said. “Don’t think he will be back this season. We will let him recover and get a good summer behind him.”
That means Newcastle are set to remain without two young players who could otherwise have had a role to play across the final matches.
The focus for Livramento will now be on completing his recovery properly and using the summer to build fitness ahead of next season. For Miley, the priority is rehabilitation after surgery, with Newcastle hopeful he can be involved again around pre-season.
For Howe, the timing is far from ideal. Newcastle still have points to play for and need to finish the season strongly, but the injury update confirms they will have to do so without Miley and almost certainly without Livramento.