Newcastle United forward Ayoze Perez admitted that the moment Florian Lejeune fell to the floor against Crystal Palace - his teammates feared the worst.
The French centre-back instantly called to be subbed off after a challenge with Andros Townsend, and left the pitch on a stretcher.
Perez, who has bonded closely with Lejeune due to the defender's ability to speak Spanish, told NUFC.co.uk that the instant reaction was fear that it was as bad as an injury as it has turned out to be.
"You could feel in the face of every team mate - we were talking about while he was on the floor because we were thinking about the worst case scenario, and that it what it was.
"We were talking about it, thinking about him, head in our hands, we were just wishing him the best."
United confirmed that Lejeune has injured his right knee - the opposite one to the one he had an operation on last year. He will miss the rest of the season, and most likely some, if not all, of pre-season.
Lejeune headed off to Barcelona to start his recovery, but is back on Tyneside , and Perez says the defender is feeling positive - despite this injury coming just four months after returning to first team action.
"Obviously he is upset but I feel he is positive, he is looking to recover as soon as possible, to get back to training as soon as possible but he knows he has our support.
"He has been doing really well, we were really happy because he was like our new signing in January - we got him back and suddenly a strange action and he got injured gain.
"Even in the game you start thinking about it, he doesn't deserve it but that's football."
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