We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points of the day in FPL Daily, a series that services weekdays where there is no press conference round-up or Premier League match.
WILSON AND TRIPPIER EDGING CLOSER TO RETURN
Eddie Howe has provided an update on Callum Wilson (£7.2m), Kieran Trippier (£5.0m), Isaac Hayden (£4.5m) and Jamal Lewis (£4.2m) as they all continue to recover from injury.
Speaking at Newcastle United’s warm-weather training camp in Dubai, the head coach said:
“I’d say they’re on schedule from where they were given their respective injuries, but I wouldn’t say necessarily ahead of schedule. They’re both serious injuries, both enough to obviously be operated on and go through a very intense rehab period.
Callum’s (Wilson) injury, you have to be very careful with; that we don’t push him back too quickly and he ends up injuring himself again, because the achilles/calf is a very delicate area of the body and you need to make sure it’s robust enough to withstand heavy load.
Kieran’s (Trippier) is slightly different. (It’s) a bone injury and I think, touch wood, if he can come through the early stages of coming out in his boots and then progressing quite quickly, he’s one we could see back in action hopefully pretty soon.
But with both injuries, I do think we have to be very cautious. We don’t want to re-injure the player.
Jamal’s (Lewis) had a long-standing groin problem and I was really pleased to see him operated on. We hope that that’s fixed his long-standing problem and he will, again, be okay in a relatively short period of time to return to training with us.
And Isaac’s (Hayden) been working after having a serious knee injury – again, one he’d played with for a long period of time. Touch wood, he’ll be back training soon.”
EVANS JOINS NORTHERN IRELAND SQUAD
Jonny Evans (£5.4m) has joined up with the Northern Ireland squad for Friday’s friendly against Luxembourg.
The Leicester City centre-back was not named in Ian Baraclough’s original 25-man squad for the game, but played 25 minutes of his club’s 2-1 Premier League win over Brentford in Gameweek 30 as he continues to recover from his hamstring injury.
“It’s only for the Luxembourg game. To have him in the squad is great. Jonny (Evans) is a leader for us. Brendan (Rodgers) had made me aware a couple of days before that he was back in training probably earlier than what they had expected and would we like to use him in the camp.” – Ian Baraclough
KEITA PULLS OUT OF INTERNATIONAL DUTY
Naby Keita (£5.0m) has pulled out of the Guinea squad for their upcoming friendlies due to a knee injury.
The midfielder featured in Liverpool’s 1-0 FA Cup win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday but was substituted in the second half.
Keita’s withdrawal comes days after manager Jurgen Klopp suggested Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m) will be out for several weeks with a hamstring problem.
