Joelinton has been experiencing discomfort in his knee for the last couple of months, but has managed to play through the pain barrier in order to help Newcastle mount a push for Champions League qualification.
However, the Brazilian was struggling during training on Friday, and the decision was taken to seek specialist advice over the underlying cause of the problem.
Joelinton was not involved in Newcastle’s 3-0 win over Ipswich Town, and while Howe is hoping the prognosis is positive, there is a chance he could be forced to miss the remaining four games of the season.
“He’s going to see a specialist, and I’m sure he’ll be scanned there as well,” said Howe, whose side climbed back into third position in the table thanks to their win over ten-man Ipswich. “He trained yesterday and just felt that his knee wasn’t 100 per cent right.
“That’s the knee that he had an injury with earlier in the season. He’s done brilliantly to play through the number of games he has without being 100 per cent fit, but he got to the point where he felt it needed a slight intervention. Let’s keep our fingers crossed it’s not serious.”
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While Joelinton was not involved in the win over Ipswich, Sven Botman returned to action after recovering from a knee issue of his own.
The Dutch centre-half missed the first half of the season after undergoing knee-ligament surgery last spring, and while he returned to action at the start of the year, he was forced to have another operation to remove some floating bone.
His recovery from that latest bout of surgery has been quicker than expected, and he returned to action this afternoon as he was a late replacement for Fabian Schar.
“He (Botman) is slightly ahead of where we thought he’d be, but he trained really well this week and looked excellent,” said Howe. “He’s looked after himself and done everything right to try to come back as quickly as possible.
“He is a great professional, and he’s also a big presence for us, we’ve missed him. It was great to be able to bring him onto the pitch in a game that maybe wouldn’t stress him as much as normal. It was a perfect reintroduction into the game.”
