Eddie Howe reveals when Newcastle United player is expected to return from 'strange' injury
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The goalkeeper, back-up to Nick Pope, suffered an ankle injury last week which necessitated a move for Loris Karius. The 29-year-old was a free agent after leaving Liverpool in the summer.
Howe – who left Mark Gillespie out of his 25-man Premier League squad – was asked ahead of tomorrow’s home game against Bournemouth if there was a concern about who would sit on the bench if either Nick Pope or Karius suffered an injury.
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Hide Ad"You’re trying to juggle everything when you name the 25-man squad,” said United’s head coach. “You can only make the decision to the best of your ability at that moment.
"Karl won’t be out long-term. We anticipate he’ll be back around six to eight weeks. We’re hoping it’s more six than eight, in which case he’ll be available for a lot of games.
"You’ve got Nick and Loris, so it’s a difficult one. Of course, if you get injuries to those players, then you're short, but we can only make the decision at the time we know that we can."
Howe labelled Darlow’s injury “strange” in his pre-match press conference.
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Hide Ad"He was just doing goalkeeping training with two or three other goalkeepers, and normal shot action, and just twisted his ankle,” said Howe.
“Then, of course, with that news, and with our 25-man squad still being open at that stage, we decided it was wise to move for someone with experience who could complement the goalkeepers we had, and Loris was the outstanding candidate when we looked at the goalkeepers available, which was quite a small pool.
“He’s at a really good age. He’s had some incredible experiences in his career, and he’s come in and trained very well.”
Howe believes Karius will “push” first-choice goalkeeper Nick Pope, who has been called up by England for the Nations League games against Italy and Germany.
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Hide Ad"He’s pushing. He's trained very well after a period where he hasn’t had that day-to-day contact with the team. So I think he’s improved and got better with every training session that we’ve had.
"Certainly, he’s been really good with the team.”