Newcastle United’s Matt Ritchie ruled out for 2 months

Matt Ritchie will be out for 2 months after suffering an ankle ligament injury vs Leicester City in the Carabao Cup. Steve Bruce has confirmed the news in his pre-Watford press conference and revealed that the Newcastle star required three stitches in his leg.

“It’s not great news. We think he’s going to be (out for) two months. There is ankle ligament damage. Thankfully it’s not six months, but it’s bad enough,” said the Newcastle United manager.

Ritchie got injured when he and Hamza Choudary went in for the ball. Bruce was stunned by the tackle and called it a ‘horror challenge’ and criticized the Leicester City player for it.

Bruce said: “The mess Matt Ritchie’s in – it was [a] horror challenge when I see the mess on his leg. I don’t want players sent off but when it’s horror challenges, it isn’t good.”

Choudary has hit back at the Newcastle manager and claimed that it was a 50/50 tackle and Ritchie pulling out of it in the last minute made it worse. Talking to Sky Sports, he said: “It was a 50/50, he pulled out last minute which made it look a lot worse. I don’t know what I can say, I try to tackle, I’ve never gone in to hurt someone and unfortunately, it has. I hope he gets better soon.”

“I know Steve Bruce was a tough-tackling defender in his day, and people are quick to forget how they played football.” added the Leicester City star.

Newcastle United have other injury worries too with Bruce revealing that Emile Krafth, Jetro Willems and Miguel Almirón are doubtful for the Watford clash. Allan Saint-Maximin suffered an injury in the Tottenham win and he is also set to be out for 3-5 weeks.