Callum Wilson’s Euro 2024 hopes all but over with striker set for 12-week absence
Callum Wilson’s hopes of earning a place in England’s Euro 2024 squad have been all but extinguished by a pectoral muscle problem that requires surgery.
The striker has become the latest in a long line of Newcastle players to fall victim to injury during a season in which Eddie Howe’s Champions League ambitions have been derailed by an overflowing treatment room.
When Wilson, who has nine England caps, hurt the muscle joining his shoulder, chest and upper arm during last Saturday’s win at Nottingham Forest, Newcastle’s manager remained cautiously optimistic the 31year-old would make a swift recovery. Instead specialist consultations have revealed that Wilson requires an operation expected to sideline him for three months.
Although, in theory, that could leave Wilson free to play for Gareth Southgate in Germany, a player already on the fringe of the England squad would be extremely unlikely to find himself the subject of a late call-up after missing much of the latter stages of the domestic season.
Alexander Isak is Howe’s only other specialist central striker but the Sweden international is recovering from a groin problem and is believed to have only an outside chance of any involvement in Newcastle’s home game against Bournemouth on Saturday.
Should Isak fail to prove his fitness, the winger Anthony Gordon is likely to be deployed as an emergency No 9 again.
Wilson could conceivably have played his final game for Newcastle. A player who turns 32 this month will be out of contract in the summer of 2025 and was heavily linked with a move during last month’s transfer window.