Newcastle United defender Fabian Schär has admitted that his year has not gone how he would have liked at the club.
The Switzerland defender was a key player for the Magpies last season, making 28 appearances in all competitions and starting 22 games in the Premier League.
This season has been a far more disjointed one, though, with him managing 15 starts in the league in a campaign that’s been hampered by injuries.
Indeed, since the beginning of November, he has managed just 109 minutes of football, with his only 90 minutes coming in the 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in February.
It’s been a frustrating period for the Newcastle man, who admits he thought things would have been different.
“My problem this season is that I’ve been injured again and again,” he told Blick.
“I had an inner ligament injury in October. I have had the complaints for a long time, but I still played.
“In retrospect, it would have been better to say earlier that it was no longer possible to play and paused.
“I suffered a muscle injury in early January. After that, it was difficult to get back into the team. We have six central defenders in the squad; now we play with a four-man defence.
“That means four are sitting on the bench. So I can already say: The last one or two months have certainly not been as I had imagined.”
At the moment Schär finds himself in isolation, with Newcastle and the rest of the Premier League waiting to see what happens to the football season.
Football in England is currently suspended indefinitely as the country battles against the Coronavirus outbreak.
There is an argument that the season could be finished behind closed doors; otherwise, the alternative is voiding the season.
Schär is not a fan of either solution, though, admitting he would feel very sorry for league leaders Liverpool should the second become a reality.
“Of course, it’s not at all what you would imagine as a footballer,” he added.
“And it’s hard for me to imagine that it (ghost games) could be a solution. It won’t make anyone happy, neither the players nor the clubs nor the fans.
“Nobody knows what to do next. Basically, you should definitely play the season to the end. For many clubs, the stakes are high.
“I’d feel sorry for Liverpool and hope it doesn’t turn out that way. It would be tragic for the club and the region. They deserve this championship.”
