Newcastle United to make late Nick Pope call for Brighton & Hove Albion trip

Before taking training, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe confirmed that he expects captain Jamaal Lascelles to be back in contention for the South Coast visit while Emil Krafth remains a doubt with a minor back issue.

There was no mention of any potential injury issue regarding Pope, who marked his competitive United debut with a clean sheet in a 2-0 win against Nottingham Forest last weekend.

On Friday afternoon, Pope became a surprise worldwide Twitter sensation after Newcastle fans, led by the Toon Polls Twitter account, hijacked a Burger King poll which in turn caused @BurgerKingUK and various big name Twitter accounts to tweet ‘Nick Pope’.

At the time of writing, roughly 60,000 tweets featuring the Newcastle goalkeeper’s name have been posted.

Even Pope himself got in on the trend by tweeting his own name. Brazilian midfielder Bruno Guimaraes also posted: “Let’s go @NUFC and Nick Pope.”

But amid the social media frenzy, Sky Sports’ Keith Downie claimed that Pope is ‘a doubt’ for the Brighton match.

The player is understood to have travelled with the squad with Howe expected to make a call on whether to start Pope or Martin Dubravka. Karl Darlow is also a third choice option between the sticks.

Pope signed for Newcastle from Burnley for £10million back in June. The 30-year-old is hoping to secure a place in England’s World Cup squad in Qatar this winter.