Newcastle United block 21-year-old's loan exit after latest injury setback
Newcastle United have had to act quickly following Fabian Schar's injury setback.
The 34-year-old picked up a nasty-looking ankle injury during the game against Leeds United on Wednesday and now looks set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
What we will say is that Fabian Schar has a fantastic record of quick recoveries from injury, and given that they don't think Schar has broken anything, we wouldn't be entirely shocked to see the Toonminator back in action a lot sooner than we all feared.
However, the Magpies still need to cope during the period he is out, and while a potential cancellation of Matt Targett's loan at Middlesbrough has been mentioned, the club has moved to block an exit rather than recall a player already out of the club.
Newcastle have opted to keep Alex Murphy at the club for the remainder of the season rather than loan him out
Young Irish defender Alex Murphy was set to be sent out on loan for the second half of this season, according to The Chronicle, but the club have opted to keep the 21-year-old on Tyneside as cover at the back.
Murphy has been a regular feature on the bench for Newcastle this season and has made a couple of appearances in the Carabao Cup for the Toon.
Despite having been on the bench for much of the season, Murphy has yet to add to his 11 minutes of Premier League football, which he picked up over two substitute appearances in the 2023/24 season.
Alex Murphy keeps narrowly missing out on game time
Murphy was stripped and ready to replace Lewis Hall recently, but the former Chelsea man managed to run off his knock, and Murphy was parked back on the bench. He was also primed to come on in the wake of Schar's injury on Wednesday before Howe opted to drop Lewis Miley into defence.
We were surprised to learn that Murphy was set to be loaned out at all, to be honest, given that he has been such a regular feature in the matchday squads this season.
Whether or not this means the youngster will be given any actual gametime remains to be seen, but it does seem like the lad is being starved for match experience.
