Newcastle United have a number of injury absences and doubts ahead of their match against Arsenal on Saturday.
Jamaal Lascelles, Sven Botman, Callum Wilson, and Kieran Trippier are all out of the game, and Jacob Murphy is a serious doubt with a hamstring problem.
Though the hamstring issue was described by Eddie Howe as “slight”, and he went on to say “we don’t think it’s anything serious”, the player did miss Wednesday’s game against Chelsea and may just fall short against Arsenal as well.
Perhaps most significantly, Newcastle star duo Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak have been dealing with knocks this week.
Howe told his pre-match press conference that both of them are feeling alright at the moment, but they’ll need further assessments during their final training session ahead of Saturday’s game.
“They both feel okay, we will assess how they feel today, 48 hours after the game,” Howe said.
“They have both had niggling injuries so we’ll make a decision today. We need to make sure whoever enters the pitch against Arsenal is in the best physical condition.”
Isak has featured in all of Newcastle’s games since the October international break, but he did have to come off early after scoring against Chelsea in midweek.
Gordon missed last weekend’s Premier League match through injury, but he was also involved against Chelsea on Wednesday before being withdrawn in a second-half substitution.
It looks like both will be available for the Arsenal match, but they’re evidently not quite at 100% right now.
