Eddie Howe has ruled out Jamal Lewis leaving Newcastle United despite a lack of game time for the left-back. Lewis, 24, has only played 52 minutes of senior football this season after struggling to force his way into the Magpies' rock solid defence.
The Northern Ireland international could earn a rare start at Hillsborough this weekend as Newcastle take on Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup. Howe admits the defender is in a good place after a number of setbacks early in his Tyneside career and has been impressing in training.
“Jamal is in a good place," the Newcastle boss told reporters on Friday. "When I first came in, he had injury problems. He had a problem with his pelvis where he went away and it got sorted.
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“That was pivotal because he wasn’t feeling himself in training and in games because he didn’t feel he execute physically what he wanted to do. He’s an incredible athlete, and now we’re seeing that in training because he’s feeling a lot more himself."
Quizzed over whether staying in the background at Newcastle would be detrimental for Lewis' career, Howe admitted the player would undoubtedly like to play more. However, with the north east outfit short of left-backs at present, the former Norwich man is set to stay put.
“He’s trained very well and become accustomed to our principles of play," Howe added. "He’s done a lot of work behind the scenes. I’d back him to produce some very good performances for us now, if given the opportunity. For me, there’s never been a doubt about the quality of player. He’s a player we really like.
“We have so many games ahead of us, a long season to come. Dan Burn, by his own admission, would probably want to be a centre-half, that would be his favoured position, but he’s doing really well at left-back for us.
“That only leaves us Jamal as a recognised left-back, with Paul Dummett coming back from injury and Matt Targett injured. There’s no way I’d be letting Jamal out at this moment, even though for his own career development, he might now be in a position where he’d be saying he wants to play regularly.
“You get these situations with players. There’s never one situation that suits everybody – there’s the team’s needs and his needs. But fundamental to it is that we like him as a player and want his career to develop. Hopefully, he can achieve everything he wants to here.”
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