Newcastle United's upcoming game against Rayo Vallecano may just be a mid-season friendly on paper - but try telling that to Florian Lejeune. This promises to be an emotional occasion for Lejeune as the Frenchman returns to St James' Park for the first time since leaving the club once and for all last year.
Lejeune may be taking a different walk on Saturday when he makes his way to the away dressing room instead of the home changing room across the tunnel, but the 31-year-old has already exchanged messages with a number of his former team-mates. These include Miguel Almiron, who Lejeune speaks to nearly every day, and Javier Manquillo, who the Rayo Vallecano defender hosted at his home in Madrid last month.
Club physio Daniel Marti has also been in touch and, with just a couple of days to go until his side's trip to Tyneside, Lejeune admitted he was 'thrilled' to come back to a 'wonderful ground with magnificent fans'.
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"It is a friendly game but one which is brimming in emotion, full of pleasure and a host of other feelings for me as it will be great to catch up with some former team-mates with whom we spent some great times together," Lejeune told ChronicleLive. "We shared a lot of laughs and lots of memories together.
"Also, catching up with the physio and other members of staff at the club. For me, it is really important to have this chance to see them again and to spend a little time with them.
"Unfortunately, I never really had a proper chance to say goodbye to them there so I sincerely hope I’ll get a chance to do it this week. I also really want to thank everyone for all of the great support I received for so many years, whether this was after each game or even when I was suffering from injury. I received a lot of messages and I really do want to be able to thank everyone."
You suspect the competitor in Lejeune will also want to impress. Lejeune even quipped that it was a 'shame' he did not get to play under Eddie Howe because they 'would have struck a chord'. There can be no doubt that Lejeune, in his pomp, was just the kind of classy ball-playing centre-back the Newcastle boss would have loved to have worked with.
Lejeune will be on the opposite side at St James' on Saturday, though, and, friendly or not, this won't be an easy match for Newcastle. Howe will know that better than anyone after the Magpies head coach visited Rayo on a fact-finding trip during his time out of the game before taking charge at St James'.
Rayo are currently flying in eighth place in La Liga and Lejeune has played his part in Los Franjirrojos' rise up the table since joining the club on loan from Alaves last summer. As well as scoring three goals, including a sweetly-hit free-kick against Cadiz, Lejeune has helped his side keep five clean sheets in a dozen league games this season. There has even been a shutout against Barcelona at the Nou Camp.
Lejeune clearly looks at home in La Liga, where the Frenchman caught the eye of Newcastle in the first place with his performances for Eibar back in 2017, but was it still difficult for the father-of-two to leave the Magpies for Alaves before his subsequent move to Rayo?
"When I decided to leave on a loan to Spain, initially, it was a choice I made because it was something I really needed to do," he said. "I had just gone through a second major injury and I hadn’t particularly appreciated the treatment I received during the Christmas period, playing some games when I shouldn’t have. There were a host of things which I didn’t like but, in the end, that is how it is.
"In a sense, it was tough to leave the club permanently a year later because I felt really great at this club and I loved the city, as did my family. We had our circle of friends there and this made it tough, for sure.
"It was all the more difficult for me personally because I knew that I was more than capable of being a big part of the team but, unfortunately, with the manager [Steve Bruce] in place at the time, it was clear that I was not in his plans and we didn’t share the same vision of the game. That is how things are - each manager has his own idea of how to play and some players may see things differently - so I respected the situation entirely.
"But I am someone who needs to play. I can’t simply go for months on end without playing. It is something I need to feel happy. I need to be out there on the pitch and to feel important."
That desire to play was only heightened after Lejeune's aforementioned injury issues. Not only did Lejeune tear the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee in training in the summer of 2018; the defender ruptured the ACL in his left knee while playing against Crystal Palace just nine months later.
It is hard enough bouncing back from a serious knee injury but two in such quick succession? That takes serious resilience and mental strength. Yet Lejeune, to his credit, has managed to play 88 competitive games at the highest level in the years since.
It is three years ago now since Lejeune made his comeback for Newcastle against Palace - of all teams - and looked like he had never been away. However, an injury crisis at the back then resulted in the centre-back starting all of the Magpies' festive fixtures, including two games in 48 hours against Manchester United and Everton.
"It was tough," he said. "Very, very tough. But I didn’t give up, I worked hard and had the support of all my team-mates and particularly my wife, Laury, who was there every day to help me.
"Coming back from my second injury, having to play so many games in such a short period of time, for me, it was something that was incredibly hard. After Boxing Day, the games come thick and fast.
"Coming back just seven months after a cruciate ligament and having to play four games in just 11 days, I honestly think there are very few players who could really manage that. But I did my best and unfortunately in the final match [against Leicester], I didn’t play well at all and we lost the game because of me.
"The most important thing was that I didn’t get injured, but I feel that I wasn’t given the very best chance and everyone knew that, the manager knew that and it is a shame, really, but that is how it is. That’s football."
Yet Lejeune has not let those difficult moments overshadow his time at the club - far from it. Lejeune still keeps an eye on Newcastle's results, and the Magpies' 'incredible turnaround', and no one is happier to see the fans 'really have a team they can be proud of'.
Newcastle may be upsetting the established order today, but supporters have never forgotten the contribution players like Lejeune made during some tough times in the Ashley era. Who could forget Lejeune's remarkable double at the death to turn a crazy game against Everton on its head at Goodison Park in 2020, for instance? Those last-gasp finishes just so happened to be the first and last goals Lejeune scored for the club during a stint on Tyneside he will always cherish.
"It was an absolutely unforgettable experience both regarding my career as a footballer and as a person," he added. "I learnt a lot and met some wonderful people during my time there. I always strove to give the very best of myself for the good of the squad and to be as effective as I could.
"It’s no secret that Newcastle are one of the greatest clubs in England and the fans were always second to none. I could never begin to thank them enough for the wonderful support they always gave to us and which they gave me personally. I have nothing but positives to say and only have wonderful memories about both the club and the city."
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