Newcastle United fear that summer signing Harvey Barnes could be sidelined until 2024 after suffering a serious foot injury, sources have confirmed to 90min.
Barnes, who joined from Leicester City in a deal worth close to £40m, was making only his second Premier League start for Newcastle in their 8-0 hammering of Sheffield United.
But the England international was hauled off after just 12 minutes at Bramall Lane and the club are awaiting opinion of a specialist, but 90min has been told that they fear he might not play again this year.
Newcastle manager Eddie Howe has admitted Barnes may even need surgery on his foot.
Howe confirmed: "It's an injury to the part of his foot just below the toe. It's quite a substantial injury. We've had it scanned, we're waiting now for a specialist opinion on what to do next and whether there’s surgery involved or not.
"I don't think it was a tackle, I think it was just pushing off to run. It's a very unusual injury. I won’t go too technical because I’m not medically qualified to do so.
"We're fearing it’s going to be, it's difficult, I don't want to put a time on it until we get confirmation from the specialist but we think it will be months rather than weeks.
"He was down after the game because he knew it wasn't a normal injury where you feel a muscle and think that might be one or two weeks, this was a slightly more complex issue and I think he probably feared the worst because there was no one around him and it was one of those mechanisms where he knew it wasn't quite right.
"There's no doubt he’ll be disappointed because he was very keen to show his value and worth and Sunday was an opportunity to do that. But whatever the injury is, we'll support him and we know he's a top quality player and he still has a massive part to play."
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This article was originally published on 90min as Newcastle fear Harvey Barnes could be out until 2024.