Newcastle United handed major blow as star facing five month layoff following ‘strange’ injury

Newcastle United goalkeeper Nick Pope is facing five months on the sidelines after dislocating his shoulder during the win over Manchester United on Saturday. Pope was injured attempting to save Sergio Reguilon’s volley and was immediately substituted after being attended to by the Newcastle United medical team.

Pope, who has played in all but one of Newcastle United’s matches in all competitions this season, is reportedly set to undergo surgery on the injury with reports from the Daily Telegraph suggesting that he could be out of action for four to five months. Speaking about the injury after Saturday’s match, Eddie Howe said: "It looks like he’s dislocated his shoulder. Such a strange thing really because he’d have made that dive thousands of times. It just looks like the arm’s kept going on the moist floor and his shoulder has come out of joint.

"We’re going to have to seek a specialist opinion and see what happens but it doesn't look good for him.”

Martin Dubravka replaced Pope on Saturday and it is likely that the Slovakian will now be the club’s first-choice stopper with Loris Karius, who has still made just one appearance for the Magpies since joining on a free transfer last September, becoming Dubravka’s deputy. News of Pope’s injury comes as Newcastle’s injury list continues to grow with a raft of key players still unable to be called on by Howe.

Sven Botman, Sean Longstaff and Joe Willock, all of whom missed the win over the Red Devils, could all be back soon but with games coming thick-and-fast at the minute, they are still likely to miss another handful of games.