Lee Charnley under pressure to deliver at Newcastle United as injuries add to gloom

When the new campaign does kick off, head coach Steve Bruce will have to do without goalkeeper Martin Dubravka and striker Dwight Gayle, who are both sidelined with injuries.

Dubravka, last season’s player of the year, hasn’t missed a Premier League game since making his debut in February 2018, and the 31-year-old will be missed between the posts. Karl Darlow is next in line to play.

Also, Joelinton is yet to take part in pre-season training, leaving Bruce with just one available striker. That player is Andy Carroll, who had his own injury problems last season after re-signing for his boyhood club.

United are yet to reveal why Joelinton – who holidayed on Mykonos this month – missed the club’s training camp in York. Four Chelsea players are reportedly in quarantine after visiting the Greek island amid a Covid-19 outbreak at the London club.

Newcastle managing director Lee Charnley, meanwhile, is left to pursue the club’s transfer business with a reduced budget due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. So far, United have signed two free transfers – Jeff Hendrick and Mark Gillespie – and fans are waiting on more signings.

Certainly, more players are needed, and a striker, as ever, is seemingly the priority at St James’s Park.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Many months ago, when a takeover was agreed with a consortium led by Amanda Staveley and including Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, supporters had hoped that this summer would be different.

It has been different due to coronavirus, but not because of a change of ownership. The group withdrew its bid late last month over the Premier League’s failure to make a timely decision on its approval, and supporters have been largely preoccupied with the fallout from that move.

However, football is back again, and the focus is switching to Bruce and his players.

And, after weeks of bad news, United fans on a sodden Tyneside – who won’t be allowed inside St James’s Park for the first few fixtures – need some good news.