FA rules will ban £53m Newcastle United trio if this happens against Brighton at St James' Park

Newcastle host Brighton at St James’ Park (1:45pm kick-off) looking to progress to the quarter-final of the FA Cup for the second successive season. The Magpies beat Birmingham City 3-2 in the fourth round of the competition last month thanks to a Joe Willock brace and a returning goal for Callum Wilson.

But Willock is one of the players at risk of an FA Cup ban for Newcastle, having been booked in the previous round at St Andrew’s. Dan Burn and Will Osula were also booked in the match.

FA rules state that players from any club entering the competition from the third round will face a one-match ban in the FA Cup should they pick up two bookings before the semi-final stage. The rules are similar in the Carabao Cup, where Newcastle saw Sean Longstaff miss the quarter-final win against Brentford and Bruno Guimaraes and Fabian Schar suspended for the semi-final first leg at Arsenal.

So should Willock, Burn or Osula be booked against Brighton on Sunday and Newcastle manage to progress, they would be banned for the quarter-final tie.

And if any player were to accumulate two bookings in the competition following the conclusion of the quarter-final matches, they would be banned for the semi-final at Wembley Stadium.

Joe Willock, Dan Burn & Will Osula at risk of suspension

Osula and Willock have played important roles in Newcastle’s FA Cup progress this season though their impact in the league has been limited. Meanwhile, Burn has been a key player for The Magpies across all competitions this season.

The trio, who Newcastle signed for a combined fee of £53million, will need to keep their discipline in check on Sunday and avoid a booking or else they will be suspended for the quarter-final - should Newcastle progress of course.

Do suspensions carry over into different competitions?

Yellow card suspensions do not carry over to different competitions but red card suspensions do. So any Newcastle player shown a straight red card and handed a three-match ban as a result would miss the upcoming Premier League match against West Ham United as well as the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool.

The third match the player misses would depend on Newcastle’s success against Brighton. Should The Magpies progress, any red-carded player would be banned for the quarter-final match before being back available for the Premier League match against Brentford next month.

If Newcastle were to be knocked out, the suspended player would be banned for the Brentford game before returning to action away at Leicester City on April 7.

Newcastle United eyeing more cup success

Brighton have been a difficult team for Newcastle to face over the years, particularly in the FA Cup. It’s been 95 years since The Magpies last beat Brighton in the competition, losing each of the last five meetings in the competition.

Their recent league form against The Seagulls isn’t too much better either with just two wins in 15 games since both sides were promoted to the Premier League in 2017.

“Yeah, just looking solely at the FA Cup, it's obviously a huge competition,” Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe said. “It's one that we have tried to focus on again, like the Carabao Cup.

“We know the importance of every game. We don't take it lightly. We know the responsibility that we have. We want to try and get back to Wembley if we can.

“This will be a tough game. Brighton are in great form, a dangerous team. They've got a lot of good attacking players. So I think it should be a really great Cup tie.”

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