Newcastle United triple injury blow confirmed as duo withdraw from England squad
Brentford 3-1 Newcastle United: Eddie Howe’s side suffered another away defeat with three new injury blows confirmed in the process.
Newcastle United were beaten 3-1 at Brentford on Sunday in a match which saw them lose two players due to injury and another blow was confirmed.
Anthony Gordon was left out of the travelling squad after suffering a hip injury during the 2-0 Champions League win over Athletic Club on Wednesday night.
During the match, Joelinton was withdrawn following a knock as Harvey Barnes gave Newcastle the lead. They held onto it until half-time before Kevin Schade headed Brentford level.
Nick Pope then fell awkwardly with the score at 1-1, but played on before eventually coming off once Newcastle had conceded a penalty. Igor Thiago scored past substitute goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale to make it 2-1 from the spot before making it 3-1 and putting the result beyond doubt in stoppage time.
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Eddie Howe confirms triple injury blow for NUFC
Explaining the double injury change, Howe said after the game: “Nick Pope suffered a concussion and that's why we took him off. As soon as we were made aware of that, then he was withdrawn.”
Joelinton had gone down twice before, eventually being withdrawn in the 24th minute and replaced by Jacob Ramsey.
“Joelinton, I'm not sure,” Howe added. “It looked like a knock, but I haven't had a discussion or debrief from the medical team on him. Anthony has a minor injury, so he'll miss England.”
Howe later confirmed Pope would also miss England after being handed his first international call-up under manager Thomas Tuchel.
“[Pope] won’t go away,” Howe clarified. “It’s 12 days [concussion protocol].”
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The international break now arguably comes at a bad time for Newcastle as they’re left to dwell on successive league defeats for the next fortnight.
“I think I'd have preferred another game quite quickly,” Howe admitted. “But maybe the period of reflection and the period to allow us to reset is a good thing.
“We will work hard during the break. I think the biggest thing is to make sure we stay together and we're motivated for what's to come.
“The fact that we haven't done our jobs and we feel we've let everybody down. I think when you do that, when you make mistakes, it's not intentional from anyone.
“All you can do is hold your hands up and go, right, okay, let's try and fix it. That's what we're going to try and do.
“Yes, absolutely. It's the wrong end of the table for us, but it is what it is. That's the reality.
“We can't change it. All we can do is affect our next performances to try and change it. We knew potentially the start of the season would be slightly choppy for us as we entered into a transitional period with the team, but there's no excuses for us.