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It is coming up to two years now since Garang Kuol signed for Newcastle United.
September 2022 saw the teenager agree the move from Central Coast Mariners but the young striker continuing to play in Australia for the time being.
Garang Kuol eventually moving to Tyneside in early 2023, having impressed at the Qatar World Cup.
The then 18 year old was swiftly loaned out to Hearts to get valuable first team experience but only one league start and 197 minutes of Scottish top tier football followed, Garang Kuol scoring one league goal in the second half of that 2022/23 season.
Last season there then followed an equally disappointing loan spell, when Garang Kuol joined a poor quality Volendam team that ended up relegated by some distance from the Dutch top tier.
Kuol with only one goal from 687 minutes of league football in Holland, eight starts and seven sub appearances.
Garang Kuol though travelled with the first team squad on the post-season trip to Australia, then was involved in the early stages of pre-season with NUFC this summer.
He was then due to go on the first team squad trip to Japan but a minor knee problem meant he had to drop out.
Moving forward though and despite interest from clubs in England, Belgium and Portugal, a loan move never happened prior to the transfer windows closing in these countries.
Now it has been made public exactly what happened, with The Athletic having revealed that ‘Garang Kuol has suffered a grade three tear to his right quad’, which scuppered any chance of a loan move. A couple of months recovery time predicted, so he could go out on loan later in the season.
The Athletic say that their understanding is that Newcastle United haven’t given up on Garang Kuol and that they always knew it would take time before the young striker might have a chance of making the necessary progress to get close to the first team squad level.
The young striker only ever started three first team league matches in Australia and even the step up in training at clubs in Scotland, Holland and England was going to be a big challenge in terms of adapting.
Garang Kuol turns 20 tomorrow (Sunday 15 September), here’s hoping for a change of luck soon.