Sven Botman and Anthony Gordon are injury doubts for Newcastle United’s visit to Manchester City next weekend, while Dan Burn is also set for a scan on a groin problem.
Botman, 25, and Gordon, 23, did not travel to St Andrew’s for Newcastle’s come-from-behind 3-2 FA Cup fourth-round victory over Birmingham City due to knee and quad problems respectively.
Burn, meanwhile, was forced off in the 55th minute with a groin issue, the severity of which is yet to be determined.
“It seems that we’re just going through a little spell where a lot of big efforts in games and we’re just picking up one or two injuries, which is a real concern for us because we have such a small squad, as we’ve said all season,” Eddie Howe said following the cup triumph.
“So we’ve got Sven missing, Anthony was feeling his quad, so didn’t travel. Then we’ve got Dan feeling his groin. So, yeah, that’s a big concern for us.”
Pushed as to whether Gordon would be fit for the trip to the Etihad, Howe was cautiously optimistic but uncertain.
“We hope so,” Howe said of Gordon. “We’ve treated the cups the same for the past few years. Everyone that’s fit we’ll take. So he’s not here today, which means he’s obviously got a problem.”
Botman was forced off during the 2-0 Carabao Cup semi-final second leg victory over Arsenal on Wednesday and is also touch and go for the Manchester City clash.
With Lloyd Kelly’s exit to Juventus during the January window, Newcastle are stretched defensively.
“I don’t know at this moment in time,” Howe said, when asked if Botman would be back next week. “Of course, we’d love him to be, but we don’t know how serious Dan’s injury is at the moment.
“I was a reluctant starter of Dan tonight. I didn’t want to take that risk with any of our players that played against Wednesday because we knew the physical cost of that game, but numbers dictated we had to.”
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