Ewen Jaouen suffers hamstring injury on France duty

Ewen Jaouen has reportedly suffered a hamstring injury while training with France Under-21s, handing Newcastle a fresh fitness concern during the international break.

According to Le Parisien journalist Benjamin Quarez, our goalkeeper injured his right hamstring on Thursday morning and has been ruled out of the remainder of the camp.

He is set to miss the upcoming European Championship qualifiers against Luxembourg on Saturday and Switzerland on Tuesday, both in Orléans. Jaouen had started France’s first two games of the break, a 1-1 draw with Iceland and a 2-0 win over Estonia.

Another setback after ankle injury

The news comes after Jaouen rolled his ankle in Newcastle training earlier this month.

He was still absent for our win over Hull before the break, so those two starts for France had been an encouraging sign after a disrupted September.

Le Parisien says further tests were scheduled for Thursday evening to establish the severity, leaving his availability for our return at Coventry on 12 October unclear.

At least we’re well stocked in the goalkeeping department, with Nick Pope ready and waiting to step up if needed. We could see him start the Carabao Cup game at Everton later this month if Ewen is still out by then.

Miley also withdraws from England duty

It hasn’t been a great day for Newcastle’s youngsters away on international duty, with Lewis Miley also returning from the England Under-21 camp today after a knock in training.

Tino Livramento had already pulled out of England’s squad earlier in the break, while Amar Dedić was forced to miss Bosnia and Herzegovina duty after aggravating his hamstring problem against Leeds.

We’ll update if we hear anything more concrete on Jaouen. Fingers crossed for no more injuries, because our squad isn’t deep enough to keep losing players.