Newcastle United suffer further injury blow as key man withdraws from Sweden squad

Emil Krafth has been forced to pull out of Sweden’s upcoming squad after suffering a ‘minor’ injury. Krafth played the full 90 minutes on Sunday as Newcastle United defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at St James’ Park.

Following Fabian Schar’s red card against Southampton on the opening day of the season, Krafth has been forced to play at centre-back alongside Dan Burn in both league and cup, helping the Magpies to an unbeaten start in domestic competitions. However, that has seemingly come at a cost with the 30-year-old withdrawing from international duty.

Sweden, who are managed by former Magpie Jon Dahl Tomasson, will play Azerbaijan and Estonia in the Nations League during the upcoming international break.

Whilst Krafth will not feature for Sweden, his club teammate Alexander Isak will play. Isak netted his first goal of the season against Spurs as he tapped home Jacob Murphy’s cross into an empty net with 12 minutes left to play.

Isak netted 25 times in all competitions last season and after a frustrating three games to begin this campaign has finally notched his first of, what will hopefully be many, this season. With the international game now set to take centre stage as domestic matters takes a back seat, the Magpies have plenty of players in action over the coming fortnight and have three representatives in the England squad, namely Nick Pope, Anthony Gordon and, for the first time in a senior squad, Tino Livramento.