Dwight Gayle could make a comeback sooner than expected and might feature against Brighton on 1st march. The striker hobbled off against Aston Villa and reports suggested that the Magpies’ top scorer would be out for a month.
Gayle has scored 20 goals this season and earlier injured his hamstring against Brentford. He suffered a recurrence of the similar injury against Villa and had to be taken off.
Newcastle United are sitting pretty comfortably at the top of the table with 69 points and are favourites to make it to the Premier League next season. Benitez’s side have been dominating the Championship scoring 62 goals and much of the credit goes to the injured forward.
Benitez is hopeful the player will be back soon as the scan showed he didn’t have any tear. “We don’t have a timescale for Dwight.
“He is doing really well and we are quite pleased with the situation now.
“He is doing really well and we are quite pleased with the situation now. “But we cannot say how long he will be out for. He is not training, but all the tests we have done are quite positive.
“It is a question of his confidence more than anything.
“I think it will be less than four weeks.”
Gayle’s fitness would be crucial for the Spaniard gaffer as they are heading towards the most crunch part of the season. They are scheduled to face fellow promotion rivals Brighton and Huddersfield Town and Gayle’s presence would be vital for them. The Toon has been heavily reliant on Gayle but Benitez has Aleksandar Mitrovic and Daryl Murphy as alternate options. Mitrovic has netted six goals while Murphy has found the net three times this term.
The gaffer might have to tweak his starting lineup a bit in the next match and Mitrovic is expected to get the nod ahead of Murphy.
