EDDIE HOWE has admitted that Newcastle United are facing a mounting crisis ahead of Wednesday’s glamour Champions League game with Paris St Germain.
The Magpies will stage a Champions League game at St James’ Park for the first time in more than 20 years, but will be without a host of senior players as they line up against the French champions.
Sven Botman will definitely be unavailable, and is also set to sit out next weekend’s Premier League game at West Ham because of the knee injury that kept him out of today’s 2-0 win over Burnley.
Having missed today’s game against the Clarets because of a hamstring issue, Callum Wilson is also expected to be unavailable for the Paris St Germain game, although he could feature at the London Stadium next Sunday.
Joelinton is also now a major injury doubt after he could only last five minutes as a second-half substitute this afternoon before hobbling off with a hamstring injury.
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Howe said: “Callum’s got a very minor hamstring problem. We hope he will be back soon. We hope we will see him before the international break, but there’s no guarantee.
“Sven has a knee problem, and I don’t think we’ll see him before the international break. Hopefully, we’ll see him very quickly afterwards.
“With Joelinton, it looks like a hamstring. That would be a huge blow if he lose him (Joelinton), but we’ll wait and see.”
To exacerbate Newcastle’s issues for next weekend’s game at West Ham, Anthony Gordon will be suspended for the trip to east London after picking up his fifth booking of the season for kicking the ball away after conceding a free-kick this afternoon.
Howe said: “It’s (the suspension) an absolute killer for us because Anthony’s been in great form. He’s been excellent and added so much to the team, so you don’t want to take that out, especially with the rhythm that he’s in.
“It then goes into the fact that it’s an international break after that, so it’s going to be quite a while that he won’t play for. It’s a big blow, and probably a needless yellow card.”
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