Sky Sports: Eddie Howe dealt early blow as player is ruled out of Nottingham Forest clash
Sky Sports have confirmed that Jonjo Shelvey has been ruled out of our opening game of the season against Nottingham Forest after suffering a hamstring injury.
Conflicting reports have emerged - Keith Downie claims he'll be missing for 'two weeks', while The Mail's Craig Hope expects him to miss 'three to four' - but both confirm he'll be forced to sit out next weekend's opening game of the 2022/23 campaign, at the very least.
This comes after the midfielder limped off in Tuesday night's 3-2 defeat to Benfica - a real shame given he'd returned for pre-season in the best shape of his career after spending his holiday training hard in Turkey.
The good news is it's not 'too serious', meaning he should be back in action before too long, but it's an unwanted blow for Eddie Howe just a week before the big kick off - especially when he's likely to miss at least two of our opening fixtures against Forest and Brighton.
Here's the updates released by the North-East reporters at Sky Sports and The Mail, starting with Keith Downie's slightly more positive take:
If Hope is right, it could mean Shelvey misses the following fixtures - along with the double-header against Atalanta and Athletic Bilbao over the coming days:
- Nottingham Forest (H) - August 6th
- Brighton (A) - August 13th
- Man City (H) - August 21st
- Wolves (A) - August 28th
