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• Newcastle to be without injured Harvey Barnes for ‘months rather than weeks’

  Newcastle winger Harvey Barnes could be facing months on the sidelines as he awaits a specialist’s verdict on the foot injury he suffered at Sheffield United.

  The 25-year-old limped out of Sunday’s 8-0 Premier League demolition job at Bramall Lane after just 12 minutes, and head coach Eddie Howe fears he could miss a significant proportion of the campaign with surgery a possibility.

  Asked if Barnes could be out for some time, Howe said: “Yes, we’re fearing it’s going to be. It’s difficult. I don’t want to put a time on it until we get confirmation from the specialist, but I think it will be months rather than weeks.”

  The England international, who joined the Magpies in a £38million summer switch from Leicester, suffered his injury as he pushed off to run in South Yorkshire and has since undergone a scan.

  Howe said: “It’s an injury to a part of the foot just below the toe. I think it’s quite a substantial injury. We’ve had it scanned, we’re waiting now for a specialist’s opinion on what to do next, whether there’s surgery involved or not.

  “I don’t think it was a tackle, I think it was just pushing off to run, a very unusual injury. I won’t go too technical because I’m not medically qualified to do so, but yes, very unusual.”

  Any extended absence would come as a blow to both a player who is desperate to establish himself on Tyneside – Sunday’s game was just his second start for his new club – and his employers, who invested heavily in his services during their latest spending spree as they prepared for a season which includes Champions League football for the first time in two decades.

  Howe said: “He was down after the game because he knew it wasn’t a normal injury where you feel a muscle and think that might be one or two weeks.

  “This was a slightly more complex issue, and I think he probably feared the worst because there was no one around him and it was one of those mechanisms where he knew it wasn’t quite right.

  “There’s no doubt he’ll be disappointed because he was very keen to show his value and worth and Sunday was an opportunity to do that. But whatever the injury is, we’ll support him and we know he’s a top quality player and he still has a massive part to play.”

• Lasse Sorensen ready to swap studying fairytales for writing own in Carabao Cup

  Lasse Sorensen has been studying fairytales after going back to school – now he is ready to write his own against West Ham.

  Online lessons, assignments and a six-hour exam has made the Lincoln midfielder an expert.

  The works of Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, which include the Emperor’s New Clothes, the Ugly Duckling and the Princess and the Pea, have been the focus.

  Enrolling in the Voksenuddannelsescentre, adult education courses, Sorensen completed his Danish literature class in the summer, all part of the 23-year-old’s plan to earn the qualifications he missed growing up.

  It is apt, playing for a club known for its recent romantic cup stories, as Lincoln target another against the Hammers in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.

  “The school takes it right back to analyse fairytales, novels and old scripts from 300 years ago,” Sorensen tells the PA news agency, ahead of the third-round tie at Sincil Bank.

  “So all the very boring stuff that I don’t think anybody really finds interesting, I certainly didn’t! I’ve done every fairytale Hans Christian Andersen has written.

  “In Denmark you need subjects like Danish, maths, history and physics before you can do anything in later life. So I took Danish, the equivalent to A-Levels in England, so if I want to go to Uni one day, I can.

  “When you play senior football a lot of it is games, games, games. There’s so much football.

  “So, sometimes the best thing to do is leave and get your head off it. I was thinking ‘what can I do which can be beneficial?’ I’m a thinker so if something happens I’ll sit and think about it a lot, good or bad.

  “I’ll sit and think if I don’t have anything else do to, so why not go back to education?

  https://x.com/itvfootball/status/1649865138101420032?s=20

  “It can never be bad and the main thing was just to get my brain off football sometimes. Otherwise, on your CV, you’ve got a little bit to say you’ve played football for a few years and done nothing else.”

  Leaving his home town, Vejen, and first team Esbjerg to join Stoke in 2016 Sorensen’s education took a back seat.

  At just 15 he moved to England without any qualifications and, while there were English lessons at the Potters, football was the focus.

  “Because I was Danish, I was just studying the language. I came to the club and then had to quickly learn as much as I could,” says the midfielder, who made eight appearances for Stoke before joining Lincoln in 2021.

  “So on the Wednesday, which was normally when the English lads used to do the education, I spent my time learning English.

  “The hardest bit of going back to school was just starting and getting your head around it.

  “As much as I’ve enjoyed getting my mind off other things, it’s never the most exciting thing to sit down and do.

  “But that was the good thing as well because you’ll say to yourself ‘you need to get it done otherwise you won’t get it.’

  “It was disciplined, the hardest and the best thing was I had to be disciplined about it.”

  His online studies culminated in the exam back in Vejen this summer with Sorensen’s graft paying off as he scored 10 – the equivalent to an A.

  “I had to sit with 100 people in a big school hall with my laptop for six hours, you couldn’t speak either of course. It was a bit different to what I’ve done for the last eight years,” says the Denmark Under-20 international, who is also planning to start a financial advisor course.

  He is now in a break from his studies as he prepares to start a maths course in a few months. Football remains the priority and the immediate one is another Premier League scalp.

  Last season Lincoln reached the Carabao Cup last 16, where they lost to Southampton, as they added to the club’s cup pedigree after their impressive run to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2017 while still in the National League.

  A shoot-out win at Sheffield United last month earned the Imps a crack at the Europa Conference League holders and Sorensen knows Mark Kennedy’s side can write another chapter.

  He said: “It’s always 11 v 11. Some might be the favourites and some the underdogs but if you want it more than the others, you are the ones who win it.

  “They’re a really, really good team, they are quality players, but it’s not actually won yet.

  “It’s been shown before, we beat Sheffield United in the last round so we’ve got a growing belief we could do it again.

  “You’ve always got to believe in yourself to do the thing most people think you can’t.”

• Duncan Ferguson appointed Inverness boss on three-year deal

  Duncan Ferguson has been appointed as Inverness manager.

  The former Dundee United, Rangers, Newcastle and Everton striker has signed a three-year contract.

  The job is Ferguson’s second in management after a brief spell at Forest Green last season. Rovers only won one of the 18 games the former Scotland forward took charge of and were relegated from Sky Bet League One.

  The ex-Everton coach succeeds Billy Dodds, who lost his job months after leading Caley Thistle to the Scottish Cup final. Inverness are bottom of the cinch Championship with one point from five games.

  Inverness said the appointment came after an “extensive recruitment process which involved some truly excellent candidates”.

  A club statement added: “Duncan has worked alongside some of the most respected and outstanding football coaches in the world in recent seasons and we are proud to have him join ICTFC as our new manager.

  “His professionalism, commitment and dynamic leadership skills shone through in our discussions, making him the standout candidate.

  “Everyone at the club is looking forward to supporting Duncan as the hard work starts now and we hope every Caley Jag will now get right behind him and the team in what we are sure will be a thrilling journey.”