Newcastle United are in the midst of a mini injury crisis at the moment.
Speaking to reporters during his pre-match press conference, Magpies boss Rafa Benitez provided an update on the injury front at Newcastle, delivering mixed news, as quoted by the Northern Echo.
The Tyneside outfit have suffered terrible luck with injuries to key players of late, and also are without Chancel Mbemba, Christian Atsu and Mo Diame, due to their participation in the African Cup of Nations.
And Benitez shared a mixture of both good and bad news, when speaking to the media, regarding the length of time that he expects some of his key men to be absent form action, as quoted by the Northern Echo:
Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez
“We had three problems, Hayden is doing well, hopefully not serious. Anita has problem with ankle could be six weeks, more or less. Dwight Gayle is much better than expected. Every day we will see how he is. The player has already started the treatment and we will see how he gets on. Hayden can play if we want to push, but we will not push him. We can take the stitches out of Mitrovic, he is doing well and we will see how he is progressing, but we will have to wait.”
Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez
The last thing that Benitez would have wanted this week as an FA Cup replay, with so many players unavailable to him, and he will surely prioritise Saturday’s Championship clash with Rotherham United, when making his team selection.
But with so many injuries to senior members of his first-team squad, the Spaniard may have to dip into the Newcastle youth team, if he is to alternate his side from the one that beat Brentford 2-1 on Saturday.
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