Newcastle United‘s Fabian Schär has confirmed he should return soon after picking up a fresh injury during pre-season.
Blick interviewed the centre-back and a large part of it focuses on the ankle injury he suffered in January.
The 34-year-old left the field on a stretcher following a serious blow in Newcastle United’s league win over Leeds United.
Newcastle United player goes into details
Fabian Schär immediately knew the setback was serious.
On the nature of the injury, he said: “I knew right away that it was serious. I had several torn ligaments in my ankle. The doctors had to reconstruct five ligaments.”
The expectation was for him to return in April, but the 34-year-old didn’t feature for the Magpies after the setback in January. The delay was because of a second round of surgery.
“After about three months, I was ready to return and wanted to train with the team again. But then I suddenly developed a serious infection, for which I had emergency surgery. This story really affected me,” Schär explained.
“A wound didn’t heal completely and became severely infected. Within a few hours, my foot swelled up and was full of pus. Because they wanted to prevent blood poisoning, it was clear: emergency surgery was unavoidable.”
Newcastle United man’s worry about second blow
The second setback came while he was getting closer to recovering from an ankle injury he first suffered in January.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it in my entire career. My doctor told me he’d never seen such a situation in 20 years. The infection occurred eleven weeks after the surgery, which is very unusual,” he added.
When asked whether he was ‘afraid of irreparable damage’, Fabian Schär opens up about what we went through and the support he received. While working on fixing this, the Newcastle United player came up with another issue.
“It was a nasty story, and the months were extremely difficult for me. During that time, I worried about several things,” Schär said.
“It was about my health and my career. It was probably the most challenging period of my entire career. I’ve had several injuries before, but there was usually a clear path to recovery. Under such circumstances, it is easier to accept it.”
“For about four weeks, I had to go to the hospital every day to receive antibiotics. After that, I took tablets regularly. Unfortunately, I also developed a blood clot. Everything really went wrong at once.
On the medical explanation for his clot, the defender added: “They inserted a valve in my upper arm so that the medication wouldn’t have to be injected into a vein each time. The clot formed there, which is why I had to take more medication for another six weeks. Mentally, it was a huge challenge.”
Reconsider future
While working on his recovery, Newcastle United offered the Swiss a contract until 2027.
Meanwhile, Eddie Howe has left, and the Premier League side have appointed Matthias Jaissle as his successor earlier this month. Fabian Schär has already made his feelings clear about Howe’s exit.
Blick asks whether ‘complex events’ this year made him give a serious thought on what his future might look like off the pitch.
Responding to that, the Magpies man said: “I have and still do. At times, it wasn’t certain whether I’d ever be able to return. I was forced to confront that, even though I didn’t want to admit it for a long time. I would have been thinking about my future anyway, had I not been injured. But probably not as intensely.”
The central defender confirms suffering a muscle injury in pre-season and should be back soon.
“It’s not that bad! I suffered a minor muscle injury two weeks ago (in the friendly against Bristol City), but I should be able to return to team training soon,” the Swiss stressed.
