Steven Taylor Out For Season With Achilles Injury

With Newcastle United sustaining their worst loss of the season to date with a 3-0 home defeat against Chelsea that saw the Magpies dropping out of the Premier League places, it’s a little cruel of fate to drop even more bad news on a club that managed to start the season so brightly. But bad news has been delivered regardless: Steven Taylor, who’s been a commanding presence at centre back all season long, has picked up an Achilles injury and... well, it doesn’t look good.

The prognosis for the defender is currently unclear, with Sky reporting that he could be out of action for as little(!) as six weeks but also that there are real fears that he won’t return this season. If Taylor does go down for an extended period of time, that’s terrible news for Newcastle, whose success has been built on a strong central partnership between Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini, who was also injured (albeit less seriously) during the Chelsea game. Even in a best case scenario for Alam Pardew, he’s going to have to pick up a centre half in the January transfer window, because fielding James Perch in the middle of the defence is one way to concede far more goals than the team can afford.