Newcastle are set to be without Alexander Isak for Saturday’s trip to face Wolves while Jacob Murphy could be sidelined for some time after both were forced off in Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund.
Topscorer Isak has been carrying a few little knocks and niggles this season and was forced to withdraw from Sweden’s squad for the recent international break due to a groin problem.
He was a doubt to face last weekend and was only fit enough for a place on the bench, coming on for the final 20 minutes.
Despite his injury concerns, Isak was picked to start ahead of for the visit of Dortmund in the but went down clutching his leg after just a quarter of an hour.
After some treatment from the physio, Isak motioned that he was unable to continue and Wilson was brought on to replace him in the 15th minute.
Late in the second half, Newcastle were dealt another injury blow when Murphy landed awkwardly just a few minutes after being subbed on and he appeared to be in serious discomfort.
Despite hitting the woodwork twice late on, the Magpies were beaten 1-0 by Dortmund but it was the injuries sustained to Isak and Murphy that concerned manager Eddie Howe most.
Asked if Isak’s issue was related to the problem that prevented him from playing for Sweden, Howe told TNT Sports: ‘Yeah it looks like a reoccurrence of his groin problem.
‘It doesn’t look serious, but it will be enough to keep him out and that’s a big blow with a player of his quality.
‘And then Jacob, yeah that looks quite serious, a dislocation potentially of his shoulder so never a good thing to see.’
Asked if Isak’s early withdrawal forced him to change his plans slightly, Howe continued: ‘That was a blow for us and we had another one with Jacob coming off with what looks like a serious injury.
‘So that’s another difficult thing to take from tonight, we’ve got a small squad as it is, so with all the games to come that’s probably the most disappointing thing from the night really.’
Newcastle’s threadbare squad will be stretched even further in the coming weeks with Sandro Tonali – who came on as a sub against BVB – set to be handed a 10-month ban for breaching Italian betting regulations.
Reflecting on the defeat to Dortmund, and dropping to third place in the group, Howe added: ‘It is going to be difficult but we’re in the Champions League. Nothing comes easy.
‘You know you’re going to have to win in some tough places. Now we need to dust ourselves down and be ready for [two weeks’ time].
‘We need to sit down and analyse the game. When you play a team so quickly again we need to work out how we adjust and see if we can go there and get a result. I don’t think we deserved to lose today.’
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