Newcastle United have had a whole host of players away on international duty during this break, which has taken away valuable training time from Matthias Jaissle.
But a good chunk of them have at least been keeping themselves fit and receiving minutes for their country. Lewis Hall has started a couple of games for England, Bazoumana Toure has had some good minutes for Ivory Coast, and Malick Thiaw has played in two of Germany’s four games just to name a few.
But one player who has had a rather disappointing international break is Matias Fernandez-Pardo. The Belgian has received barely any minutes for his country, a sentiment that was consolidated by remaining an unused substitute against France yesterday.
Fernandez-Pardo’s awful international break
When Fernandez-Pardo joined Newcastle United this summer, he hadn’t managed anything that resembled a pre season with Lille and it was obvious that it would take at least a few weeks to get him up to speed.
But, after four games, only two of which he started and neither of which he finished, the Belgian was called up for international duty. Not only did that mean he would miss out on three weeks of valuable training ground time to learn Jaissle’s principles, but it was also pretty clear it would set him back in terms of his match fitness.
Fernandez-Pardo went to the World Cup with Belgium, barely played there, and hasn’t really managed to secure a bigger role in any of the friendlies or nations league games he has been picked for either. That meant we all kind of knew this break would follow a similar pattern and, alas, it has done exactly that.
The 21-year-old has spent his time watching from the sidelines, while the match fitness and sharpness that Newcastle were trying so hard to build up slowly fades away, leaving him finishing the international break the same way, if not worse off, than he started it.
What it means for Newcastle
The Magpies are already in a bit of an injury crisis, meaning it will be very important to have every possible fit first-team player firing on all cylinders upon the return of the Premier League. Belgium may have ruined that possibility for Fernandez-Pardo.
The positive comes in the fact that there is a week from now until the Coventry game, which will hopefully give the forward the time to at least do a bit of training although, having said that, he is still yet to return from the international camp.
Newcastle will be hoping to have more options available in the forward areas by the Coventry game, with Will Osula nearing a return from his ankle injury, but it does feel like the club may be returning from the international break much in the same way they entered it…
With a whole load of players not quite up to speed.
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