The Newcastle Jets can confirm that Joe Champness has a suffered a fracture in his foot during a training session at Ray Watt Oval today.
In a fairly innocuous incident, Champness came off second best when challenging for the ball and immediately left the pitch for a medical assessment.
The young attacker is expected to miss the next 8 – 10 weeks with the injury.
Jets boss, Ernie Merrick said while Champness would miss limited games, it was a difficult time of year to sustain an injury of this nature.
“It’s a real blow for us and for Joey, he’s been impressive since returning for pre-season,” Merrick said.
“We’re still about two months away (from 2018/19), so Joey has plenty of time to recover but missing a significant portion of pre-season will certainly impact his conditioning.
“We’ve been working the boys extremely hard over he last few months and that will continue, I’m a big believer in getting plenty of miles into our legs during this time of year.
“It’s something we’ll work on through Joey’s rehab and our Medical Team will be doing everything they can to have him ready to go for the early part of the season.
“We certainly won’t be rushing him back or taking any risks.”
Champness will also be unavailable for selection in the upcoming Olyroos squad to be announced next week.
The Jets have a friendly fixture against the Central Coast Mariners on Saturday 25 August and an FFA Cup Round of 16 clash with Melbourne City on Wednesday 29 August.
