Newcastle United have just seven league games of the season to go to realise their ambitions of qualifying for European football again next season. In what has been a very up and down campaign on Tyneside, the Magpies have given themselves a chance of finishing in the top eight of the Premier League.
There are plenty of permutations on whether an 8th placed finish would be enough to qualify for European football - and so a strong finish to guarantee a top seven finish is needed. However, they will likely have to do that without a clutch of key players who remain sidelined with injury.
Spurs are up next for the Magpies on Saturday lunchtime at St James’ Park, however, Eddie Howe isn’t expected to have many, if any, of his sidelined players back in action for that match. Jamaal Lascelles, Sven Botman and Sandro Tonali have all been ruled-out until next season whilst nine others remain on the treatment table and face a race against time to play a big role between now and the end of the campaign.
Here, we take a look at the estimated return dates for all of Newcastle United’s sidelined players and what Howe ha said about their respective injury, suspension and recover timescales:
1. Callum Wilson
“Looking good. Callum is doing the hard yards and running hard. Of course it’s an upper limb injury so he’s able to keep very fit and really look after his legs and build his strength. I anticipate when he comes back that he will look really good.” Estimated return date = Sheffield United (h) - 27/04 | Getty Images
2. Kieran Trippier
“No, he hasn't had a setback. With Kieran, he had a calf problem that initially, look, I always try and give you honest feedback on scan results and timeframes, but those timeframes, especially early in the injury, are just that. They're an estimate of what the injury will be. Now some injuries, I'm sure people will be frustrated that the manager said it'd be four weeks, but it's ended up being six, seven or eight, but that's just the nature of medicine and science. So Kieran will be a little bit longer than we anticipated he would be, purely from the fact he's had no setback but the injury is just taking long than we first thought. He's had rescans and he's been to see different people and we feel this is the best thing for him.” Estimated return date = Sheffield United (h) - 27/04 | Getty Images
3. Nick Pope
"We're still hoping that it'll be the end of April initially again, but similar to Kieran we'll take the time needed to try and get him right. If that's a bit longer, that's a bit longer, if it's shorter than great. He's out on the training pitch, he's not training with us yet, he's making the early stages in terms of diving and getting a feel for goalkeeping again. But it is early stages and we've got to make sure that we don't put him at risk." Estimated return date = Burnley (a) - 04/05 | Getty Images
4. Tino Livramento
“Tino’s was quite obvious when you look at the footage. It’s strange really the ball hits him as he’s trying to plant his ankle on the floor and it has twisted it to an uncomfortable angle and you can see that it has caused him pain. Thankfully it’s not as serious as it could have been and we anticipate he could be back quite quickly.” Estimated return date = TBC (late-April 2024) | Getty Images