Newcastle United in the dark over Matt Targett – ‘it looks as if it’s plantar fasciitis’, says expert
Newcastle United can not be sure of when Matt Targett will return after he was diagnosed with an “extremely painful” foot condition called plantar fasciitis.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis, speaking exclusively to Football Insider.
Targett last featured for Newcastle in early December during the club’s 1-0 win over Chelsea, and his last Premier League start came in September.
The 27-year-old has been struggling with a foot condition, and Eddie Howe revealed last month (31 December) that the injury has “got to the point where it’s too painful for him to carry on.”
Dinnery admits that the nature of the injury makes it incredibly hard to formulate a recovery timeline.
“It looks as if it’s plantar fasciitis, which can be an extremely painful foot condition,” Dinnery told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“It’s a stress-related loading problem and is an injury you can manage fairly conservatively.
“Kepa Arrizabalaga is a player that has suffered with it in recent times, and Jordan Henderson and Patrick Bamford both had it in the past.
“Sometimes it just gets to the point where you’re not able to control that pain element anymore, and you need to ease back.
“Thankfully, it does respond really well to conservative treatment.
“But because of the nature of this foot condition and how the body responds to it, there are no definitive timelines in regards to when he can be back in contention.
“You can spend 3 to 4 days on the training pitches and be absolutely fine, but then wake up on game day and be in agony.“
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