NEWCASTLE feared Siem de Jong had been left blinded following a horror training ground injury.
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| Siem de Jong has featured in 14 Premier League games for Newcastle this term but failed to score |
De Jong was rushed to hospital with blood streaming from his eye after a freak accident with a team-mate.
And Toon manager Steve McClaren revealed last night there was genuine concern De Jong could lose the sight in one eye.
"There was a massive danger," said McClaren, who was attending Pavel Srnicek's memorial service in the city centre and wasn't present when the incident occurred.
"He got poked in the eye and went down screaming. There was blood pouring from it. Siem wears contact lenses and one of them had come out and gone in his eye.
"When I came back from Pav's memorial, I saw him in a darkened room and he had the biggest black eye ever, headaches and everything."
De Jong's condition has improved and although he will be out for a fortnight, he has been assured there is no lasting damage.
"I saw him this morning and it looks a lot better," added McClaren. "The doctors say it will take a week or two to settle down so he's been very lucky."
De Jong has been plagued by misfortune since joining Newcastle from Ajax 18 months ago, suffering a serious calf injury before spending another long spell on the sidelines with a collapsed lung.
He only made his first Toon start of the season last month before losing his place after just three games.
Former Swansea midfielder Jonjo Shelvey will make his debut against West Ham today with McClaren defending the decision to hand over £12m to one of Newcastle's relegation rivals for a player who had lost his place.
"We felt we were getting a very good player in return for that money," he said. "We're just worried about strengthening ourselves rather than weakening anyone else, but we'd like to think we got the better of the deal."
McClaren faces his international nemesis today, with West Ham boss Slaven Bilic having masterminded Croatia's 3-2 victory at Wembley that meant England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, and McClaren was sacked by the FA the following morning.
He was dubbed the 'wally with the brolly' for his failure but Bilic reckons that is all behind McClaren now.
"A long time ago he re-established himself, if he needed to re-establish himself," said Bilic. "I knew him from the beginning of his career because my two team-mates came to Derby, Aljosa Asanovic and Igor Stimac, when I played for West Ham and Steve was Jim Smith's assistant.
"They told me how great he was as a coach and then you start to follow him a bit more."
McClaren failed to fire Derby to promotion last season but still landed the Newcastle job in June. While he might not have been the big name Toon fans wanted, Bilic says he still is to him.
He added: "First of all he is a football man and he is crazy about football. He's a big gentleman and I respect him a lot - he's a big name to me."
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