Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe has delivered an update on the fitness of his squad ahead of Wednesday’s Premier League clash with Brentford at St James’ Park.
The Magpies are preparing for their first match since beating Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley in the EFL Cup final on March 16 to win their first domestic trophy for 70 years.
Anthony Gordon was an unfortunate one who missed the showpiece event through suspension before picking up a thigh/groin injury on international duty with England almost a fortnight ago.
The 24-year-old remains sidelined and will serve the third and final match of his three-game suspension on Wednesday, but Howe is hopeful that the winger can be back in contention for the trip to Leicester City next Monday.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Howe said: “Anthony has some nasty bruising around his thigh, groin area, but he’s up and running and feeling quite good.
“He’s not trained with the group yet, so we anticipate he’ll do that within the next few days, hopefully.”
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Botman targeting return in May after undergoing knee surgery
Meanwhile, Howe has confirmed that defender Sven Botman is ruled out for around six weeks after undergoing a minor operation on a keen injury that has kept him sidelined since the beginning of February.
“Sven’s not too bad. He’s had a very minor operation just to clean out some floating bone that was in his knee and was causing him a problem,” said the Magpies boss.
“The initial diagnosis was between six and eight weeks but I think he’s already got through a few of those. Fingers crossed we’ll see him in May.”
Botman, who only returned from a 10-month ACL layoff in January, is joined in the treatment room by Jamaal Lascelles and Lewis Hall, the former of whom has been sidelined for over a year with an ACL injury and the latter is ruled out with a season-ending foot problem.
The absence of Botman is set to see Fabian Schar and Dan Burn continue at centre-back, while Harvey Barnes is poised to start on the left flank against Brentford in the absence of Gordon.
Newcastle will endeavour to strengthen their hopes of securing Champions League football for next season when they take on the Bees; they currently sit sixth in the Premier League table and only two points behind Chelsea in fourth who have played a game more.
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