Targett tore his Achilles when he returned in March after suffering a hamstring injury during the Magpies’ 3-0 victory over Manchester United on the road in November 2023. The 29-year-old was benched for the Premier League opener against Southampton at St. James’ Park despite missing the whole preseason.Targett made an appearance for the under-21 team in their Tyne-Wear derby tie against Sunderland a few days later, but he quickly suffered another setback due to a severe eczema attack. Thirteen months later, on Boxing Day, Targett made his first-team comeback as a late substitute in the 3-0 victory over Aston Villa. He subsequently got his first start in the FA Cup third round triumph over Bromley earlier this month. “It’s been crazy,” Targett said. Some of the injuries I’ve sustained since joining are absolutely insane.

“I think I was back for a week or two after I injured my hamstring at Manchester United and recovered, but I somehow tore my Achilles, which put me back another three or four months.”I knew I would miss the entire preseason with the club going into this season, but I would still make an effort to rejoin the squad for the opening games.I thought to myself, “Okay, I’m not missing too much of the season, but it’s not great that I missed all the pre-season games.” I was simply trying to recover as much as I could for that, so I was a little behind schedule when I suddenly had an eczema flare-up that took me completely by surprise.

“Since I’ve come back from that, I’ve just been gradually building my workload in terms of training consistently with the team, getting a few minutes with the 21s and then the game against Bromley was the icing on the cake. “It’s been a challenging period, for sure, so it was wonderful to play again.” Since permanently moving from Villa for £15 million in the summer of 2022, Targett has only started 12 games. The full-back started sixteen games during his four months on loan. He now lags behind people like Dan Burn, Lloyd Kelly, and Lewis Hall in the hierarchy. Leeds United is one of the teams that have reportedly made an inquiry, and it is believed that Newcastle is open to bids for the midfielder.

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