Ioan Wissa is set to make his debut for Newcastle United this Saturday at home against Burnley, according to Eddie Howe. A £55m deal from Brentford saw him make his debut for the Magpies. He had been sidelined since early September after sustaining a knee injury during an international mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The 29-year-old striker joined the Magpies on deadline day but has been sidelined ever since. However, he has been working diligently with his medical team behind the scenes as he recovers from his PCL injury and resumed training last week. Wissa also took part in a secret 11v11 training match, while Howe revealed he will take part in another full-fledged match this week in preparation for this weekend’s match. This suggests Wissa could secure a place on the bench for the crucial Premier League game against Burnley at St James’ Park.
However, Howe declined to confirm Wissa’s availability, saying he would need to assess the player’s performance over the next two days of training before making a decision. “I don’t know, but we’ll see what happens this week,” he said. “We still have a lot of training to do, so we’ll see.”
Newcastle received a boost earlier this week when it was confirmed that Ouissa will not take part in next month’s African Cup of Nations alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are concerns that the athlete will leave for the tournament once he is feeling better, which will result in him missing a month of action during the busy festival period.
However, he was not selected to represent the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is concentrating on his recovery on Tyneside. This reduces the urgency for Newcastle to rush his return to the first team.
Howe will also assess the condition of midfielder Sandro Tonali. The Italian did not return to the pitch after half-time in Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham after picking up the injury in the first half.
Immediately after the match against Spurs, he said: “Sandro got a knock in the first half. We don’t really know the extent of the injury or the type of injury.”
