Newcastle United have been rocked by a potential injury to Matt Ritchie.
Newcastle United winger Matt Ritchie has pulled out of Scotland’s upcoming friendly with Hungary due to an unspecified injury.
According to The Northern Echo, Newcastle will spend the next few days monitoring the former Bournemouth man after withdrawing from the squad today.
The Magpies are five points clear of the relegation zone but Rafael Benitez will be disappointed if one of his first-team players winds up missing some of the run-in.
United host fellow relegation battlers Huddersfield at St James’s Park on Saturday and you wonder if Ritchie’s blow might make Benitez turn to Jacob Murphy.
The former Norwich City winger, who cost £12 million last summer, has only started two games for Newcastle in 2018, with the Spanish manager only giving him 84 minutes of football in close to two months.
But he is the obvious choice to replace Ritchie if it transpires that he’ll be missing for a while and it might be just the stroke of luck that Murphy – who has one goal and one assist in 19 Premier League games – needs to start repaying the big sum that was paid out for him.
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