Miguel Almiron was back to his brilliant best as Newcastle United took another giant leap towards the promised land of Champions League football this week. The Paraguayan, who enjoyed a blistering start to the campaign, played a huge part in the 4-1 win over Brighton on Thursday, earning plenty of plaudits in the process.
Almiron was up against fellow countryman and international team-mate Julio Enciso at St James' Park, with the pair coming to blows in the second-half after a poor challenge from the Brighton man. Newcastle's right-midfielder usually keeps his cool but lost his temper under the lights, squaring up to the 19-year-old before being pulled away by his team-mates.
Almiron is hailed as a hero in his home country and Enciso, only just beginning to make a name for himself on the south coast and further afield, has spoken highly of his counterpart on a number of occasions. For that reason, it was good to see the pair squashing their beef and enjoying a chat and a laugh at full-time, before Enciso apologised to Miggy with a polite social media message after the game.
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“I never want to fight with anyone. and especially with Miguel. For those that know me and the way I am know the respect I have for Miguel," Enciso wrote. "Still, I apologised, we apologised and now we’re fine. Miguel is an idol of mine, I adore him a lot and we both work hard to put our country at the top."
Almiron's fine early season form saw him spearhead Newcastle's ascent up the Premier League table before the World Cup break. However, a recent injury setback saw the winger lose his spot to Jacob Murphy in recent games.
Almiron has worked hard behind the scenes to come back stronger and fight for his place in Eddie Howe's starting XI at the business end of the campaign. The Newcastle boss was keen to comment on the 28-year-old's unseen graft before returning to the fold this month.
"It's definitely worth me commenting on his professionalism and what he did do," Howe said after the Brighton win. "He picked up an innocuous looking injury. It was actually from shooting in training but on the scan it was quite bad.
"We feared we might not see him again for a large part of the season but he worked incredibly hard with Danny Marti, one of the physios here.
"They worked in tandem with each other. He went to Barcelona for a couple of injections but the work and commitment he's given to get back as quickly as possible has been brilliant to see."
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