Newcastle United winger Anthony Elanga has avoided a serious injury after being taken off on a stretcher during the team’s pre-season friendly win over Valencia on Saturday.

New Newcastle head coach Matthias Jaissle said after the match that he hoped the 24-year-old would be fit to start next week, when Newcastle have pre-season games against Everton, Bayer Leverkusen and Strasbourg.

In the first half, Elanga was on the receiving end of a reckless challenge from Valencia left-back Jose Gaya, whose left boot connected high on Elanga’s right leg. Gaya received a straight red card for the tackle.

The Sweden international appeared in considerable pain on the pitch as his team-mates, led by striker William Osula, confronted Gaya. The challenge also sparked an angry reaction from Jaissle, taking charge of his first game since being announced as Eddie Howe’s replacement on Wednesday, with the German shouting at the assistant referee and fourth official.

Elanga was treated on the pitch at the Mestalla Stadium before being taken off on a stretcher.

Players confronted each other after Gaya’s challenge (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Club sources with knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity, indicated that Elanga was walking after being taken off and was dealing with a shin contusion. In his post-match press conference Jaissle said that Elanga “seems to be OK”.

When asked about the challenge, he said: “The only thing I can say is that it seems to be not bad, and we hope it’s true that Anthony can start again next week.

“Of course I was in fear, definitely. But now I am more relaxed because the medical department is showing a green light for it. It was a really tough (challenge), it was not expected. Fouls are part of the game — that was really harsh.”

Elanga joined Newcastle from Nottingham Forest last summer for a fee of £52million plus add-ons, he made 49 appearances in all competitions in the 2025-26 campaign, though he made just 14 Premier League starts and failed to record a goal in the league.

Newcastle fell behind against Valencia after an early strike from midfielder Filip Ugrinic, but a second-half double from Yoane Wissa turned things around for a 2-1 win.

Fabian Schar and Lewis Miley both missed the game, while Lewis Hall left the training camp on Wednesday as he manages a minor injury. Tino Livramento remains sidelined as he recovers from the calf issue that forced him out of England’s World Cup campaign, while Dan Burn is yet to join the main squad after representing the nation at the tournament.

Fifa has strongly criticised what it calls a “concerted and ongoing effort” to “undermine” the organisation and its president Gianni Infantino.

The statement follows a Daily Telegraph report, external which claimed Infantino’s alleged lover was given a severance payment by Uefa after he had an affair while he was its general secretary.

Fifa hit out at “unsubstantiated assertions and demonstrably false claims”, adding that “speculation and insinuation should not be presented as fact”.

Infantino has come under increasing pressure from Uefa and European football associations over his aborted Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal.

FFE would have meant a new company being created to manage commercial and ticketing rights, with 21% sold off to a private investment company.

Uefa has said it has lost confidence in Infantino, while Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) president Lise Klaveness on Friday called on the Swiss-Italian to resign.

European football’s governing body says its threat to boycott Fifa events remains on the table, adding that certain conditions have not been met.

“The Fifa President was democratically elected by Fifa’s Member Associations and continues to serve with their mandate,” Fifa said in its statement on Saturday.

“It is increasingly evident that there is a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine Fifa and its president.

“Those who do not have the support of Fifa’s member associations should not seek to achieve through allegation, insinuation or misinformation what they cannot achieve through Fifa’s established democratic processes.”

Opposition to Infantino is largely from within Europe.

The Mexican Football Federation broke ranks with its regional governing body Concacaf to come out in support of Infantino.

It echoed a statement from Conmebol – South America’s governing body – in saying it would reject any attempt to remove Infantino without a vote involving all 211 Fifa member countries.

Infantino is also unanimously backed by the 54 nations of the Confederation of African Football (Caf).