Newcastle United star given injury timeline after ‘not looking good’ assessment
Newcastle United defender Tino Livramento faces up to eight weeks on the sidelines after he was carried off in a stretcher during their club’s defeat against Arsenal.
The 22-year-old England defender jumped to challenge Arsenal’s William Saliba late on in the game but fell awkwardly and had his head in hands before medical staff came on the field to treat him.
There was initial fears that he had re-ruptured his ACL again, having done so previously in 2022, but Sky Sports’ Newcastle reporter Keith Downie has said the injury is less severe than first thought.
Scans on Tuesday showed he had injured knee ligaments and could be out for six to eight weeks which would see him miss around 10 matches.
Newcastle sent Livramento for a second test with his knee still swollen at the time of the initial assessment but the news will be a small positive for Eddie Howe who described the full back as a “big player for us.”
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“It doesn’t sound great,” Howe told the BBC. “The fact he came off on a stretcher is not looking good.”
“He’s such a big player for us in so many different ways – his versatility, his attitude, his quality,” Howe said.
“If we’re going to miss that for any length of time, it is going to be a huge blow.”
Livramento joins summer signings Yoane Wissa and Jacob Ramsey on the treatment table with neither of the pair having yet made their debut.
One new signing who has made his debut is Nick Woltemade and Howe was forced to defend the 23-year-old German after Bayern Munich executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge claimed Stuttgart had found “an idiot” to pay £69 million for the striker.
Howe said the transfer fee was “absolutely irrelevant.”
“The market forces dictate transfer fees, not necessarily any one club,” Howe said. “We’re very pleased to have Nick with us.
“I think he’s started very strongly in what’s been a difficult period for him because he’s thrust straight into action, no training time with us, really, of any note and I think he’s done really, really well, so we’re really pleased to have him with us and the transfer fee, for me, is absolutely irrelevant.
“What he’s going to be judged on is how he performs in the team and what he gives to the club going forward.”
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