Newcastle United have shared a range of images from training at Darsley Park ahead of facing Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon, and fans will surely love one of them, as Fabian Schar was among those photographed.
The star Swiss centre-half was forced off in the closing stages of our loss away to Burnley last week after being battered and bruised at Turf Moor, having already been through the wars just six days earlier when we came from behind to beat Southampton.
Andy Carroll revealed after the Clarets defeat that Schar had “bruises everywhere” including “bumps all over his head”, as the former Deportivo La Coruna man – signed for £3million in 2018 – had been elbowed by Ashley Barnes.
Schar, though, looks set to feature on Saturday when we host Crystal Palace, having been snapped grinning on the pitches at Darsley Park as head coach Steve Bruce put the first-team through their paces in preparation for the mid-table affair.
Good vibes 🙌
For a full gallery of images from today’s training session 👇 #NUFChttps://t.co/7hmnlBMvlC pic.twitter.com/aX4TQmMjd4
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) December 19, 2019
Having Schar in the starting line-up on Saturday will be a big boost to our efforts in moving above Palace in the Premier League standings, with the Eagles just a point ahead of us.
Schar has started ten of his 11 top-flight appearances thus far this season, and is currently averaging the second-most successful tackles per 90 minutes of the five centre-halves used by Bruce to date.
What will the result be on Saturday?
Toon win
Draw
Eagles win
Federico Fernandez leads the club for successful tackles per 90 mins in the league with 2.6 from 3.3 attempts to Schar’s 2.5 from 3.7, per WhoScored data, while our 54-cap Swiss international also ranks first for interceptions with 2.2, shots blocked (1.0), accurate short passes (22.7) and second for passes blocked (1.0) and accurate long balls (3.9).
In other Newcastle United news, the Toon have been credited with an interest in an £18million man likely set to be sold in January.