Dan Burn sparked injury fears for when he went off in the second half of last weekend’s FA Cup fourth round win over Birmingham City.
The Newcastle United centre-back had to be replaced by Fabian Schar in the 55th minute at St Andrew’s with an apparent groin injury.
Manager Eddie Howe admitted the optics of the big man trudging of were not good as his side prepare to return to Premier League action with a trip to face Manchester City on Saturday afternoon.
Dan Burn injury update ahead of Manchester City v Newcastle United
The Newcastle boss delivered an update on Burn ahead of that trip to the Etihad Stadium, revealing that the injury was not as bad as it might have appeared at first.
Howe explained that Burn had been sent for diagnosis, saying: “The initial look wasn’t good, but the scan was good.”
Howe added of the 6’7″ centre-back at his pre-match press conference: “He’s improved a lot very quickly this week so he’ll be very close this weekend.”
The Newcastle gaffer admits that the fifth vs sixth battle could be a useful yardstick for measuring where his side are after an up-and-down season so far.
Newcastle ended an extended indifferent run up to December by embarking on a run of six consecutive wins, which has since been punctured by home defeats to Bournemouth and Fulham.
Howe said: “It’s going to be a great few weeks for us in terms of evaluating our strengths and see how competitive we are in the league, This will be at a pivotal stage of the season, a really defining few weeks for us.”
Burn’s positive prognosis is good news for the player and club alike ahead of their League Cup final against Liverpool next month.
Newcastle overcame Arsenal 2-0 in both legs of the semi-finals to earn themselves the Wembley showdown.