Official Newcastle United injury update rules key man out for seven games - including Aston Villa & Man Utd

Pope picked up a knee injury during the 4-2 defeat at Brentford and missed training and the 4-0 win over Leicester City as a result. It is understood Pope has sustained ligament damage to his knee and is expected to miss Newcastle’s next seven matches, including big games against Aston Villa, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

Providing an update on Pope’s injury after the victory over Leicester, Howe said: “He saw the specialist and the feedback is he’s going to be out for around a month so bad timing for us and for Nick as there are a lot of games in that four week period.

“We hope after that four weeks he’ll be in a good enough condition to play. He injured himself just passing the ball against Brentford, really innocuous but he didn’t feel particularly good afterwards.”

Martin Dubravka came into the side and kept a comfortable clean sheet in Pope’s absence. The Slovakian played the majority of last season in goal for Newcastle when Pope was ruled out for 25 matches with a dislocated shoulder.

Odysseas Vlachodimos, John Ruddy and Mark Gillespie are also goalkeeping options for Howe.

”We have a very strong unit,” Howe said. “A very good, experienced team of goalkeepers behind Nick which is a great thing for us to utilise.”

Next up for Newcastle is Brentford at St James’ Park in the Carabao Cup quarter-final.