By Henry Winter

The Daily Telegraph
July 28 1997

Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand scored 41 league goals for Newcastle last season. Yesterday Kenny Dalglish lost both England internationals with Shearer undergoing an operation for torn ankle ligaments while Ferdinand completed his £6 million transfer to Tottenham, writes Henry Winter.

Shearer - who according to Dalglish “will be out for months rather than weeks” - sustained the injury in the last minute of Newcastle’s Umbro International Tournament match against Chelsea at Goodison Park on Saturday.

He was taken by ambulance to Liverpool’s Fazackerley Hospital where the severity of the injury was diagnosed and was transferred to a Newcastle hospital to undergo surgery yesterday morning.

Dalglish said: “He has had an operation to repair torn ligaments and without putting an exact figure on it, he will be out for a wee while. It will be months rather than weeks, but exactly how long we don’t know yet.”

The implications for both his club and country are immense. Newcastle’s leading light will definitely miss the Champions’ League qualifier against Croatia Zagreb or Partizan Belgrade on Aug 13. Although famed as a quick healer, England’s captain is also unlikely to be available for Moldova at home in September or, of even greater importance, the visit to Rome in October.

England managed to overcome a low-key Italy without Shearer in the summer’s Tournoi de France but he remains a talismanic figure for his country, capable of inspiring flagging minds and bodies simply through his determined presence. England, and his attacking partner Teddy Sheringham, will be the poorer without him. Robbie Fowler, Ian Wright, possibly even Stan Collymore, stand by.

Newcastle’s ambitions have been similarly hit. Dalglish had hoped to build his attack around Shearer and new Danish signing Jon Dahl Tomasson, a deft operator in the composed Sheringham role. With Shearer likely to be absent for the first third of the season, Dalglish might have been tempted yesterday to persuade Ferdinand to stay at St James’ Park.

The £6 million deal was, after all, reportedly instigated by Newcastle plc, keen to reap such a return on a player past his 30th birthday. But that option was denied by the Newcastle manager last night with the news that Ferdinand had met Spurs chairman Alan Sugar at his Essex mansion and agreed personal terms.

A simple statement was issued from White Hart Lane which said: “Tottenham Hotspur and Les Ferdinand have agreed terms and he is now formally a member of the Spurs squad.”

Despite the setbacks, however, Dalglish rejected the suggestion that Newcastle now faced a “striker crisis”. “I don’t think crisis is the right word,” he said. “We had three class strikers [Shearer, Ferdinand and Faustino Asprilla] and there is the possibility we might be left with one. Fortunately, we’ve signed Tomasson, who can also play forward. It’s not so bad. There are a lot of people worse than us.” It will still be interesting to observe what happens to Newcastle’s share price when the market opens this morning.

At least, the City and St James’ can take some comfort in Shearer’s reputation for quick recovery. Some believed his career was over when he snapped cruciate knee ligaments playing for Blackburn Rovers against Leeds United in December 1992. It took eight months before he resumed playing again, scoring a hat-trick on his return, and he has since gone on to finish third in the World Footballer of the Year poll.

It was this initial knee experience, the moments of doubt in hospital as he lay on a surgeon’s slab and then the subsequent months of gradual rehabilitation, that helped accentuate Shearer’s innate resilience. That is why he plays with such unstinting commitment. That is why he was seeking possession with a minute to go against Chelsea in a fairly meaningless pre-season friendly at Goodison Park on Saturday when, with no one near him, his studs caught in the turf as he stretched to reach a pass from Philippe Albert.

Few who know the man, however, doubt his powers of recovery. In April last year he underwent groin surgery but missed only two games and lit up Euro 96. Last October Shearer visited Harley Street for further surgery and was back in action within 30 days. In February a third groin operation in nine months kept him away from the fray for five weeks. But now, with his pre-season work truncated, Shearer will need a longer period than normal to re-build his fitness.

Such is the gathering pre-season frenzy, Newcastle will inevitably be linked with other strikers. The name of Egil Ostenstad has been mentioned, although Southampton’s £7.5 million valuation is unlikely to trigger a mass stampede to the Dell.