Joe Willock injury update after early withdrawal against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday

In what was hopefully not a sign of things to come, Newcastle United picked up a serious looking injury in the third game of the season on Wednesday night.

After the nightmare that was last season, Newcastle will have been hoping for a lot less injury disruption this season, but after just three games we have picked up a new addition to the treatment list.

Joe Willock, who spent the huge majority of last season sidelined with an achilles injury, scored the opening goal on Wednesday night after just 18 seconds but 15 minutes later his night was over after picking up a thigh injury.

After the game, Eddie Howe told reporters that it didn't look good for Willock.

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Joe Willock's injury may not be as bad as first feared

In this morning's pre-Tottenham press conference, Eddie Howe gave a little update on Willock's situating offering a little bit of hope.

"Relatively good news on the scan. I don't think it's a serious injury but it is early. We will rescan again, I think in a few days time just to confirm that. But it doesn't look too bad at the moment."

It certainly doesn't sound like Willock will be involved on Sunday when Tottenham come to town, but it also doesn't sound like he's going to be sidelined for months either.

Tonali and Willock could transform how Newcastle play

In those opening 15 minutes against Nottingham Forest, Willock was our biggest source of creativity. He looked fired up and ready to make up for missing so much of last season so for him to go down with another injury is devastating.

Having him and Sandro Tonali back - and I hate this cliché but it's true - was like having two new signings on the pitch. Together they injected some positivity into how we play.

After Willock's departure things started to turn the other way and Forest got back into the game. So the fact that we may not be without Willock for too long is a huge positive bit of news on a day where positivity is going to be hard to come by.