Miguel Almiron leaves pitch in tears as Newcastle United suffer double injury blow

Miguel Almiron left the field in tears after going down with a hamstring injury after being caught by Oriol Romeu in the second half.

The Newcastle United midfielder had been superb in the first 45 minutes, when Ayoze Perez netted twice.

Southampton's James Ward-Prowse was fortunate to stay on the field after blocking Almiron in a two-on-one attack from Rafa Benitez's side.

And defender Fabian Schar was forced off in the 69th minute, while Isaac Hayden was also replaced.

Asked about Almiron, Benitez said: "It's a hamstring injury (Almiron), but we will have to see how he is.

"We will have to speak with the doctor and see how he reacts. It's the same with Schar and Hayden.

"Schar was complaining yesterday, and we saw him in the first half. We weren’t very keen to do any substitutions at the start of the second half, because we knew we had one or two little problems. In the end it was like that.

"It is bad for them, but we have other players and maybe they will get a chance to do their best now."

Almiron and Schar were replaced by Christian Atsu and Federico Fernandez. Mohamed Diame came on for Hayden in a third change with Newcastle leading 2-1, and Jonjo Shelvey, again, was left on the bench.

Perez completed his hat-trick with four minutes left on the clock.

The result moved