Allan Saint-Maximin has sent another message to his critics as the Newcastle United talisman looks to silence his doubters after the international break.
Saint-Maximin has played just 94 minutes of football in recent weeks after being sidelined by injury and illness. Saint-Maximin suffered a calf injury in the win against Aston Villa last month and, following a period of intensive treatment in Monaco, the Frenchman returned to action as a substitute in the win against Brighton 20 days later.
However, Saint-Maximin then missed the win at Southampton with a bout of sickness and the mercurial forward has not looked himself during recent cameos against Chelsea and Everton after only having a couple of training sessions with his team-mates. Although Saint-Maximin drew the sliding challenge which led to Allan being controversially sent off at Goodison Park last time out, the 25-year-old was later criticised on social media for his work off the ball and for being dispossessed in the build-up to Alex Iwobi's winner for Everton.
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No player is immune from criticism, of course, but Saint-Maximin took note of those comments. In an Instagram post on Saturday, the Frenchman wrote: 'People forget quickly, but I know what to do to restore their memory'.
Saint-Maximin has since taken to the platform once more to post videos of him sprinting on a treadmill. After completing this intense session, a sweat-soaked Saint-Maximin picked up the phone and turned it to selfie mode before captioning the clip with the words 'let's see now' followed by a sand timer emoji.
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The international break may have come at a good time for Saint-Maximin to catch up on these sessions. In Eddie Howe's own words, the coming days will be an opportunity to get 'that load into' Saint-Maximin during the club's warm-weather training camp in Dubai and the 25-year-old will be desperate to put himself in contention to start in Newcastle's next game at Spurs on April 3.
Newcastle will certainly need a fit and firing Saint-Maximin for the final nine games of the campaign. As well as taking his side up the field, Saint-Maximin has been directly involved in a quarter of Newcastle's goals this season. Saint-Maximin's goals, alone, helped the Magpies earn five valuable points against Southampton, Leeds, Brentford, Manchester United and Watford during a difficult run of form earlier in the campaign.
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