Newcastle United boss Steve Bruce has suggested to the club’s Twitter account that Allan Saint-Maximin, Sean Longstaff and Isaac Hayden all won’t play against Manchester City on Wednesday.
Newcastle picked up a 2-2 draw with West Ham United yesterday, but Bruce may need to rotate his team, after a busy schedule recently.
Saint-Maximin has started every game since the restart, but Bruce may have to take Newcastle’s most dangerous attacker out of their starting line-up against City.
The Magpies boss also suggested that Longstaff and Hayden would be missing from his side’s starting line-up in midweek.
“Unfortunately I don’t think I could ask Allan to go again on Wednesday, that’s for sure. Our two, arguably, fittest players in Sean Longstaff and Isaac Hayden have both got hamstring injuries. They’re not serious but it’s two or three weeks which probably rules them out.”
For Newcastle to lose three of their key players is a considerable blow.
Saint-Maximin’s absence will be particularly hard to cope with, as he carries so much of their attacking threat.
Newcastle are unlikely to see much of the ball against City, and without Saint-Maximin on the pitch it could be difficult for Bruce’s side to cause many problems on the counter attack.
If Saint-Maximin is ruled out, Valentino Lazaro or Matt Ritchie could come into Newcastle’s line-up as his replacement.
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