Devastating news on Sven Botman – Report | OneFootball

Sven Botman was missing from the matchday squad on Sunday against Brighton.

Ahead of the match, Eddie Howe had said he hoped both Joelinton and the Dutch defender were ‘close’ to a return to action.

The Head Coach hoping that the pair of them on their return to training on Friday and Saturday, that they were back in the necessary physical shape to play.

As it happened, only the Brazil international was included in the matchday squad, playing the first hour against Brighton and then clearly what appeared to have been the pre-match plan, subbed off so that he didn’t overdo it.

Eddie Howe revealing (see below) after the defeat to Brighton, that Sven Botman had done light training on Saturday but ‘didn’t feel 100 percent confident in his body’, so they decided not to risk him in that FA Cup match.

The NUFC Head Coach saying on Sunday that the hope was that Botman could return for the West Ham match on Monday 10 March, or failing that, the Carabao Cup Final six days after that.

Now in an exclusive, Craig Hope of The Mail says that his information is that Sven Botman ended up going to see a specialist on Tuesday and the expert advice is that an operation will be the best course of action.

Devastating news for Sven Botman who only returned from a ten month ACL absence in January and looked close to back to his best, starring in both semi-final matches as United defeated Arsenal 4-0 on aggregate, the two clean sheets playing a massive part in that superb NUFC effort.

The Mail report that their understanding is that this latest injury is on the other knee, not the ACL one that caused a ten month absence. They also say that whilst Sven Botman will be missing for a while, including the Carabao Cup Final of course, the club hope that this knee injury isn’t anything like as serious as the one Botman recently recovered from.

Shocking luck for Eddie Howe as well, in a matter of days losing both Lewis Hall and Sven Botman to surgery, as well as Anthony Gordon picking up the three match ban.

Eddie Howe on the Sven Botman injury and (at that point) hopeful recovery – Sunday 2 March 2025:

“Sven Botman was close [to being available for the Brighton match] but he did light training on Saturday and didn’t feel 100 percent confident in his body.

“So, we decided not to risk him.

“We still hope that he can play a part, either in our next game [West Ham away] or the game after [Carabao Cup Final against Liverpool.

“We are desperate to get him back fit because he is such a big player.

“But we couldn’t take the risk with him if he wasn’t 100 percent fit.”

Upcoming Newcastle United fixtures:

Monday 10 March – West Ham v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports

Sunday 16 March – Newcastle v Liverpool (4.30pm) Carabao Cup final Sky Sports

Wednesday 2 April – Newcastle v Brentford (7.45pm)

Monday 7 April – Leicester v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports

Sunday 13 April – Newcastle v Man U (4.30pm) Sky Sports

Wednesday 16 April – Newcastle v Palace (7.30pm)

Saturday 19 April – Villa v Newcastle (5.30pm) Sky Sports