How Northern Ireland defender Jamal Lewis has gone from Liverpool target to Newcastle cast-off

The 24-year-old was a regular in his first season on Tyneside, but fell out of favour under Steve Bruce.

And yet he appeared to be getting his Magpies career back on track and impressed in a run of games around the Christmas period before suffering a hamstring injury against Liverpool.

There were encouraging words from new boss Eddie Howe and with three years left to run on his contract there seemed no clues to what unfolded.

The January arrival of Matt Targett on loan from Aston Villa has been a game-changer.

Lewis would have braced himself for more competition and the search for another left-back was no secret, but the impact of Targett’s signing has been seismic.

Howe has taken the brutal and some might say bizarre decision to dump Lewis from the 25-man first-team Premier League squad for the remainder of the campaign.

With Newcastle out of the FA Cup, that effectively means he will not play for them again this term.

Meanwhile, other left-back options Paul Dummett and Matt Ritchie - both in their 30s and having poor seasons - are still in the fold.

Where this leaves Lewis and what impact it has on his mind-set is unclear.

He took to Instagram to post a black and white image of himself looking skyward in the rain and tellingly, wearing a Northern Ireland tracksuit.

The fans’ reaction has been largely sympathetic, one of the Toon Army spoke for many when he posted: ‘We’ve got your back Jamal’.

The club were eager for him to go on loan to Championship Birmingham City, but Lewis turned it down.

No explanation was given as to why he would prefer to click his heels with the odd U23 game to regular minutes proving Howe wrong in the second tier.

There are still other loan markets open, with talk of interest from Turkish side Fenerbahce, but you sense a promising career at a crossroads.

His ridiculous sending-off for time wasting at a throw-in during the first-half in a World Cup qualifier in Switzerland in October encapsulated all his recent misfortunes.

There is no doubt that Lewis has all the tools to be a top-flight full-back, and he has at times showed for club and country that he has the talent, but it has been wasted at Newcastle.

Lewis joined a club where attacking full-backs were redundant. There was too much defending for that. A lack of experience was ruthlessly exposed. Naturally, his confidence plummeted and the general malaise that hung around Newcastle was infectious.

It was the wrong club at the wrong time. To think that for a £1m or so, it could have been him at Anfield.

The Reds made an offer, but the Canaries wanted more and so the Merseyside club went for a cheaper option, Konstas Tsimikas as cover for Andy Robertson.

The Greek defender has flourished at Anfield in a role that is tailor-made for Lewis and is pushing the Scotland skipper all the way.

Lewis has had plenty of time recently to dwell on this sliding doors moment, but he must focus his mind and not let it define his career.

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