Jamaal Lascelles did not confront Eddie Howe over his extraordinary six-month wait for a Premier League start.
For a player that has been at the epicentre of everything at Newcastle United in the past decade, it can't have been easy for the 29-year-old centre-back that was once wanted by Arsene Wenger at Arsenal during his fledgling years as a kid with Nottingham Forest. Since making his top-flight bow for the Magpies he has found himself at the head of a restaurant table with business tycoon Mike Ashley to thrash out political disputes, nose to nose with senior pros over a dip in standards back in 2016 and was deemed as the leader Rafa Benitez saw fit to guide the club back to the Premier League in 2017.
In all truth, the above passage skims over a clutch of stormy episodes that would make a best-selling autobiography for Lascelles later in his life. This season alone has been layered with many testing moments for the Derby-born defender from a personal point of view.
