I had an eczema flare-up that 'knocked me for six' after a bad episode at Newcastle United
Matt Targett has admitted it has been a 'difficult period' for him at Newcastle United following a series of 'crazy' lay-offs.
Targett suffered a nasty hamstring injury in Newcastle's 3-0 win against Manchester United in November, 2023 before going on to tear his Achilles in the spring. Targett missed all of Newcastle's pre-season games, as a result, but the left-back returned to action for the reserves in August.
However, Targett then suffered an eczema flare-up that set him back further. Eddie Howe called it 'quite a bad episode' and, after hearing about Targett, the National Eczema Society felt moved to issue a post to explain that dealing with a flare-up can be 'painful, exhausting and draining both physically and mentally'.
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Targett has since put that setback behind him, though. After featuring against former club Aston Villa on Boxing Day, the defender made his first competitive start in more than 14 months versus Bromley earlier this month.
"It's been mad," Targett told the club's programme. "Since I've joined, some of the injuries I've had, it's just crazy.
"When I did my hamstring away at Manchester United and then recovered from that, I think I was back for a week or two and then somehow I got a tear in my Achilles so that set me back another three or four months. Going into this season, I knew I'd miss all of pre-season with the team but would try and get back in and around the team for the first games.
"In my head, I was like, 'OK, It's not great that I've missed all the pre-season games, but I'm not missing too much of the season'. I was just focusing on trying to come back as strong as possible for that and then I had the eczema flare-up, which was literally out of the blue, and that knocked me for six so that set me back a bit.
"Since I've come back from that, I've just been gradually building my workload in terms of training consistently with the team, getting a few minutes with the 21s and then the game against Bromley was the icing on the cake. It's been a difficult period, for sure, so it was nice to play again."
