Josh Sargent’s exact return for English Football League Championship side Norwich City remains unknown, but manager David Wagner is expecting to have him back for the second half of the season.
Wagner confirmed that Sargent is expected to return to action during the festive period in England this December or in the early stages of 2024, the Canaries manager confirmed postmatch this past weekend. Sargent has already undergone ankle surgery to repair multiple ligaments after suffering a serious injury in August.
The U.S. men’s national team forward suffered the injury in the first half of the Canaries 4-0 league win over Huddersfield Town.
“We saw Josh on Wednesday the first time in the building after his surgery,” Wagner said. “Looks good. Obviously, I’ve spoken with him and he does not need any painkillers any longer, which is the good information. Next week, he gets out of stitches, which is then the next step and it still is the time frame which we set – Christmas, early January – when we hope to have him come back.
“Everything went well so far. But now obviously it’s all about recovery and then to have a proper rehab, and then a proper build up of his fitness,” Wagner added.
Sargent, 23, totaled three goals during the early stages of the current league season before suffering the injury. The Missouri native led the Canaries with 13 goals last season and entered the new season as their top scoring option.
However, his long-term injury forced him out of September USMNT duty and will also rule him out of the October window. The USMNT will face Germany and Ghana in October on home soil.
Norwich City sits fourth in the Championship table and next faces Leicester City on Wednesday at Carrow Road.
i know it’s framed as a positive but that’s a fairly long recovery period underlining whatever he did was in fact serious. that’s like 3-4 months from now and tack on another month since it happened. reyna would have a quicker return from a leg fracture.
Well Wagner did describe it as a “serious ankle injury” right after the match. Based on recovery times it appears it was the ligament not bone that he damaged. Without the full context is he saying full playing around Christmas or begin training on the field around Christmas.
they never spelled out what it was and from personal experience a garden variety sprain (ankle or knee) is a few weeks, not months. i get it’s vaguely “serious,” but like this makes you want to ask exactly what. people like to chatter about this that or the other player as injury prone but for holden or o’brien talk the specifics matter.
Well the initial was serious and then they said he had surgery. I’m not sure why with an adult they don’t just say this was the injury though.