Newcastle United are teetering.
They are tantalisingly teetering on the brink of returning to the Champions League, and of winning the Carabao Cup, their first trophy for 70 years, while simultaneously teetering on the brink of being stretched too far beyond their means.
The latter is a strange, almost harsh, issue to raise, given Newcastle have won 12 of their last 14 games in all competitions. The latest of those victories was also delivered by a side featuring nine changes from the midweek triumph over Arsenal, who fell behind inside 45 seconds and yet still found a way to fight back and overcome an upwardly mobile Birmingham City at a raucous St Andrew’s.
That was yet another tricky assignment passed, but the physical and psychological toll of the past week has caused collateral damage at the most inopportune moment.
Sven Botman and Anthony Gordon missed the trip to the West Midlands with knee and quad injuries respectively, while Dan Burn was forced off with a groin problem after Eddie Howe “reluctantly” started the centre-back because “numbers dictated we had to”.
There is hope that some, if not all, of that trio may be fit for next weekend’s trip to Manchester City. But add Joelinton and Harvey Barnes to the list of multiple players who are injury doubts and suddenly there is a fragility about Newcastle’s squad as they head into a season-defining, potentially era-defining, five weeks.
Felt good to be back out there with my team ✨🫶🏽
Amazing support from you fans as usual! Another cup win and a long awaited goal 🙌🏽 pic.twitter.com/SOexaZm26L
— Callum Wilson (@CallumWilson) February 8, 2025
Between now and March 16, every result, every performance and every injury and niggle will be viewed through the prism of how it may affect that Wembley showpiece.
“We’re at such a key stage of the season,” Howe said, “that (more injuries) are the last thing we need to derail us because we’ve got such a small squad.”
So small that, at three separate stages this season, Howe has described Sandro Tonali, Botman and now Callum Wilson as “like a new signing”.
Howe has even admitted that, in an attempt to prevent staleness creeping into a player pool which has not had its first XI bolstered since the summer of 2023, he has accentuated the impact of injured players’ return to full training and the freshness they have injected into the wider group.
In Wilson’s case, he may yet be critical to Newcastle’s chances of overcoming Liverpool in north London. The 32-year-old is an ideal foil to Alexander Isak — on the occasions when he is fit.
Astonishingly, in his fifth season on Tyneside, Wilson finally made his first-ever FA Cup start for Newcastle on Saturday. It marked just his sixth appearance of the season and only his third start in any competition since December 2023, while he also scored his first goal since May, following another injury-ravaged campaign.
Callum Wilson forces it in for @NUFC following a goalmouth scramble!#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/hcZ9hCneU0
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) February 8, 2025
“I’ll try and play as many games from now until the end of the season, help the team and get some goals,” Wilson told the BBC. “It’s been frustrating to say the least but hopefully I’m on the other side now and can contribute from here on out.”
Time will tell, because history suggests otherwise. Wilson’s goalscoring ability and general quality as a centre-forward have never been in doubt, but his body’s durability has. And increasingly so.
Encouragingly, Wilson is not the only fringe player who is showing signs of stepping up at the moment Newcastle require match-defining contributions from elsewhere.
Joe Willock has not been as rarely spotted as Wilson, but the 25-year-old has endured two injury-disrupted seasons and has struggled for consistent form, starting just twice in two months. There had been just a single goal and assist apiece from the midfielder all season before his match-winning brace in Birmingham, when Willock was deployed on the left of a front three, given the shortage of attacking options.
With Joelinton still out for a matter of “weeks”, Willock’s carrying ability and dynamism offers a fresh dynamic to Newcastle’s midfield — as long as he can have a material impact upon matches, as he did at St Andrew’s.
“We really want to see Joe at his best,” Howe said. “It’s been a stop-start season for him, but this is a big moment.”
Perversely, despite Wilson’s return, William Osula’s game time may also be set to increase. The 21-year-old’s rawness makes deploying him as a striker in the Premier League risky, but Osula’s pace, directness and unpredictability mean he could be a wild-card wide-forward option.
Joe Willock gets the equaliser for @NUFC as the assistant referee rules his initial shot had crossed the line ⚫️⚪️#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/vDhfiYTL6u
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) February 8, 2025
With Miguel Almiron having departed, Jacob Murphy is the only out-and-out right-winger in Newcastle’s squad. Yet Osula deputised against Birmingham and provided two assists, with his speed and willingness to run in behind repeatedly unsettling and stretching the opposition defence.
“He’s a massive player for us now,” Howe said, a statement which felt borderline remarkable given this was merely Osula’s third Newcastle start. “He’s very, very close to playing with the squad size that we have.”
In their updated Premier League squad for the remainder of the season, Newcastle have filled 24 of their available 25 slots but five are taken by goalkeepers. Jamal Lewis — who has not featured for Newcastle since January 2023, spent the first half of the season on loan at Sao Paulo, and is sidelined with an ankle injury — has been given another, yet he is hardly a like-for-like replacement for the departed Lloyd Kelly.
The financial logic behind selling Kelly was compelling — Newcastle may bank up to £20million ($24.8m) eventually for the defender — but his exit, alongside Almiron’s, has affected the depth of Howe’s squad, even if they had only started five league games between them.
It’s @Joewillock again 🤩
He’s put @NUFC ahead late on!#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/iSmMVoHwbv
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) February 8, 2025
With Newcastle’s hierarchy adamant the club’s PSR (Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules) position was such that they could not countenance incomings, those who left were not replaced, putting greater strain on existing players.
“Mentally, physically,” Howe said, “you could see a few players were on the edge.”
Inside a week, Newcastle succumbed to Fulham, overwhelmed Arsenal and then managed to find a way to win against Birmingham.
Evidently, Newcastle are teetering — and nobody can yet say for sure whether they are strong enough to become history-makers.
(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
