Newcastle United are monitoring Florian Lejeune's performances at Alaves and Steve Bruce believes it is 'important' for the defender to get game time out on loan.
Lejeune joined Alaves on a season-long loan back in September and the defender has already made 15 appearances for the Spanish side - which is more than he managed last season at Newcastle after recovering from a second serious knee injury.
Alaves had the third worst defence in La Liga last season and conceded 58 goals as they narrowly avoided relegation but, with Lejeune at the back, El Glorioso have tightened up a little and eight sides have let in more goals in the top-flight so far in 2020-21.
Lejeune put in a particularly impressive performance as his side earned a point against Barcelona last November - the Frenchman even cleared a Lionel Messi free-kick off the line - and the 29-year-old is enjoying working with former manager Pablo Machin again.
Newcastle are certainly not short of centre-backs - Jamaal Lascelles, Ciaran Clark, Federico Fernandez, Fabian Schar and Paul Dummett are all on the club's books - but there have been occasions where Isaac Hayden has had to fill in at the back this season.
However, Lejeune looks set to see out the rest of the campaign at the Mendizorrotza Stadium and Bruce has been pleased to see the move work out so far - even if loan coordinator Shola Ameobi has been unable to watch the defender in the flesh because of the pandemic.
"The purpose of it was to go and play," Bruce told reporters on Zoom. "He's playing week in, week out so I'm led to believe.
"Of course, we're kept updated on him. It would be nice for Shola, our loans manager, to go and see him but with the problems...the feedback is he's doing OK.
"He's fit and he's healthy, which is the most important thing, so I think it's important that the kid still plays games."
Lejeune has 18 months left to run on his current contract but the centre-back previously told ChronicleLive that he was 'not thinking about next season'.
"Steve Bruce told me that he was going to keep an eye on me but we will see," he said back in November.
"So far, no one has told me anything but I'm not worried about that.
"I'm only focused on Alaves, winning games and having a good season. That's very important for the team and for me."
