Newcastle United summer signing won’t play again this season after undergoing surgery

Newcastle United haven’t seen a great deal of Charlie McArthur following his move from Scottish Premiership side Kilmarnock last summer.

The Magpies fought off fierce competition from a number of Premier League clubs - including Liverpool, Manchester City, Brighton, West Ham and Wolves - to sign the Scotland under-17s defender.

McArthur made his debut at Killie aged 16 and went on to make a further three senior appearances for the 21-22 Scottish Premiership champions. After joining Newcastle, the teenager was placed into the under-18s set-up.

However, in only his fourth match, McArthur suffered a knee injury against local rivals Sunderland on September 17. He managed to play through it before receiving the news that brought his 22-23 campaign to an end.

“I injured my lateral meniscus in my knee,” McArthur told United - the club’s matchday programme. “I knew something was up straight away but continued to play because I thought I’d jarred it or something.

“When I finished the game, I had it checked out and it turned out that it was my meniscus. I didn’t know how long I was going to be ruled out for as I’d never had that kind of injury before.

“I had the surgery and then, straight away, I was in the gym and I started to develop different aspects of my game. At first, it was tough because there are a lot of up and downs. It’s never a straight road but I’ve been able to develop physically and also mentally.

“Even when I’m off the pitch, I’m working on keeping my mind ticking over too, watching first-team games and the Newcastle defenders in particular, seeing what traits I could put into my own game to become even better.”

After coming through the worst, McArthur is “back on the grass” and is targetting full fitness ahead of pre-season.

“Even though I’ve been injured for the majority of the season, I’ve really enjoyed my first season at Newcastle,” McArthur added. “When I first joined, I got some games for the Under-18s and thought I was doing well up until that.

“Despite taking a turn for the worse with an injury, I’ve still never taken a day for granted and have been working to get back as quickly as possible. For me, the most important thing when I’ve been out is that it has given me the opportunity to develop physically.

“Hopefully, when I come back, I can push for the Under-21s and then the first-team as I think I’m physically ready to go and deal with the players that I’ll be coming up against.

“I’m back on the grass now and training. The plan is to get fully fit for pre-season, get a good run of games and take it from there.”

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