Benitez confirms absence of Newcastle striker

Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez has revealed striker Salomon Rondon could miss several games with the thigh injury he suffered at Crystal Palace last Saturday.

Asked how serious the injury is, Benitez said: “We need to check. I think a couple of weeks, maybe. The idea is to see how he is going on after every week.”

Rondon has struggled to rediscover his best form since his arrival on loan from West Brom, with a trip away with Venezuela also hampering his efforts to impress.

Benitez said: “I was talking with him this morning. When he came, he came a little bit late – he was injured when he was at West Brom. Then after, when he was improving his fitness – it was obvious he needed to improve his fitness – he went with the national team for 15 days, so we couldn’t have the control.

“Coming back, hard training sessions, then he felt something in the warm-up the other day. So we were watching the game and we said ‘it’s not fine’, and we had to make the substitution.

“People watching were saying he could do this, but he couldn’t. He was trying – because he had not been playing he wanted to impress, but he couldn’t.”

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