New injury nightmare for Isaac Hayden

Isaac Hayden was the first player to move out of Newcastle United this summer and the first signing for Norwich City boss Dean Smith.

The 27 year old midfielder accepting it was time to move on to get regular football.

A long-term knee problem had ended up with surgery in December 2021 which helped ensure Isaac Hayden was left out of Eddie Howe’s Premier League squad for the second half of the season.

With no football since 19 December 2021 when he played in the 4-0 home defeat to Man City, Hayden very much looking forward to a full pre-season with Norwich City and then the 46 game Championship season to follow.

However, pre-season has been badly disrupted by a new injury nightmare.

Isaac Hayden has already missed the first two Norwich pre-season friendlies and wasn’t able to join in with squad training when they were away last week in Germany.

Now Norwich boss Dean Smith has revealed that Isaac Hayden has had further surgery to ‘flush out the knee’ that was operated on whilst he was at Newcastle United.

Hayden now set to miss the rest of pre-season and Smith then having to simply hope he won’t miss too much of the start of this Championship campaign.

Hopefully this won’t prove still an ongoing knee problem and we’ll see Isaac Hayden playing a full part in Norwich’s season.

Dean Smith speaking to the Pink Un – 12 July 2022:

“Isaac went to see a specialist yesterday.

“His knee had been swelling up, which I mentioned at the weekend.

“They flushed it out and I don’t expect to see him before the early part of the season.

“The consultant was really happy with what he did and that will be good news for us.

“He had a week’s really good training and for some reason then got swelling on his knee, so that has been flushed out.

“Just a minor operation.”

Isaac Hayden explaining why he has made the move from Newcastle United to Norwich City, speaking to the official Norwich site – 7 June 2022

“I am absolutely delighted.

“This is a fantastic club. Everything is well run, it has got a good infrastructure and the stadium and the fan base is great.

“I am here to try to help the team get back to the Premier League.

“The facilities at the training ground are great and changed significantly from when I have visited before. I’ve also looked at our squad and I want to add to that and help get us promoted straight away.

“The head coach was a big factor for me.

“He called me straight away and saw that I was out of the picture at Newcastle.

“I had spoken to him a few times before and he always struck me as somebody who was trying to do the right things and doing things very well at football clubs.”

Norwich City Head coach Dean Smith – 7 June 2022:

“We’re really pleased to have the deal for Isaac sorted so early. We know of his ability and he’s a player I’ve been tracking for a number of years.

“He’s a really good footballer and has both excellent technical and ball-winning qualities. He plays mainly as a holding midfielder, is good aerially and we believe he can be very good for us in both boxes.

“He brings a lot of experience of both the Premier League and Championship. We know he is a really good personality and character and that will add to our group.

“The fact that he can join us at the start of pre-season is great. Overall, we’re delighted with the signing and look forward to welcoming Isaac to the group.”

After the final Premier League home game and win over Arsenal last month, Isaac Hayden took to Twitter to seemingly prepare the ground for announcing his departure from Newcastle United this summer…

What a football club ❤️, the future is bright and will be a pleasure to watch it in whatever capacity that is 👏🏾 #NUFC https://t.co/nCsBprllxD

— Isaac Hayden (@IsaacHayden65) May 17, 2022

Which he then followed up with on Monday 23 May 2022 after the very final game of the PL season, seemingly making clear that wheels were in motion for him to move to another club this summer.

Isaac Hayden saying via his personal Twitter account – Monday 23 May 2022:

“Another season completed.

“Started poorly, ended on fire.

“Takeover (completed), future is bright for this great club.

“Personally my toughest in pro football but everything happens for a reason.

“Thank you for your incredible support this season and over the last 6 years.”