Newcastle defender Florian Lejeune opens up on injury nightmare

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Newcastle United defender Florian Lejeune has admitted he cried after suffering a second anterior cruciate ligament.

The Frenchman has been sidelined since April of this year after damaging his left knee against Crystal Palace.

Lejeune has endured some rotten luck since transferring to the club from Eibar in 2017, having injured his other ACL in July 2018.

In a huge boost for the Magpies, the 28-year-old is almost ready to return to first-team action and has been training.

Speaking about his second injury, Lejeune said (club’s official website): “The hardest part of it all for me was from the moment I got injured to when I was back in the dressing room.

“Those ten minutes or so were very, very hard to take psychologically.

“I actually cried at that point. Emotionally I just let myself go and then when I was back in the dressing room I knew exactly what I had done, even though I was yet to have a scan. I knew what it was, and I had to say to myself, more rehab and more hard work on the road to regaining fitness.”

TBR’s view

Lejeune’s somewhat early return will be a massive positive for Newcastle.

He’s spent a lot of time on the treatment table so far during his Newcastle career, but he has shown that he is one of the club’s best defenders when everybody is fit. Fabian Schar has a big fan club, but Lejeune is also massively appreciated for the Geordie faithful.

The Magpies have actually been fairly decent defensively, but Lejeune being back in the starting XI could make Steve Bruce’s side much harder to beat.