‘Strange’ - Newcastle United ace ruled out for six matches - including Man Utd, Arsenal & Borussia Dortmund

Murphy and Isak were both forced off for Newcastle in Wednesday night’s 1-0 Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund at St James’ Park. After the match, Magpies head coach Eddie Howe explained Murphy had dislocated his shoulder while Isak had suffered a groin injury.

20-year-old midfielder Elliot Anderson was missing from the matchday squad for the Dortmund match with Howe revealing afterwards that the player has been suffering with his back.

“Yeah, it looks like he's got a back problem so he's probably going to be missing a few weeks,” Howe confirmed.

Anderson’s injury is likely to see him miss the upcoming matches against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Manchester United, Arsenal, AFC Bournemouth and the reverse leg against Dortmund. And with concerns over Isak and Murphy as well as Harvey Barnes and Sven Botman ruled out, Newcastle’s squad is looking thin heading into a hectic run of matches.

“It is [looking really stretched],” admitted The Magpies’ boss. “It's a strange one because you look at Murph's injury and Elliot's, they're quite difficult injuries to get your head around.

“They happen and you have to adjust and that's all you can do, you can't sit here and analyse it too much. It's a case of right, get on with it.

“We'll group the players, massive game at Wolves ahead, we're still in a very good position in the Champions League and a very good position in the Premier League. We've made a positive start and every player in the squad is vitally important and we need to pull them together in this moment.”

Wednesday night’s match saw Joe Willock make his return from injury after five months out. But Howe revealed afterwards that the 24-year-old’s introduction in the closing stages was not part of his plan.

“The injuries forced [Willock on],” Howe told The Gazette. “We were left with one change after Alex's early withdrawal.

“We made [two double substitutions] to use all our subs and try and just manage the game load for some of them. Joelinton is just back from injury so we tried to manage him so that's why we made the change.”