According to The Times’ Martin Hardy, Newcastle stopper Martin Dubravka will miss ‘at least’ our next SIX games after suffering medial knee ligament damage.
This comes after the Newcastle no.1 was spotted leaving St Mary’s on crutches following a late challenge from Danny Ings appeared to injure his knee during Saturday’s 0-1 win at Southampton.
Injury fears were initially played down, with Bruce calling the crutches a precautionary measure, but Hardy claims the issue is worse than first feared.
Here’s what the reliable North-East reporter tweeted late last night, with his story that followed claiming he’s set for over a month on the sidelines:
Just when our injury issues were starting to clear up completely, this is another bitter blow Steve Bruce could’ve really done without.
The Slovakian has been absolutely outstanding this season and will be a huge miss, with recent Premier League stats highlighting that he’d made considerably more saves this season than any other top flight goalkeeper.
Without him we would’ve been in big trouble, but it looks like we’ll now have to rely on Karl Darlow – who has a big chance to impress Steve Bruce but equally big gloves to fill in Dubravka’s absence.
Thankfully we’re EIGHT clear of the bottom three and look likely to stay up (largely thanks to his brilliance!), yet he will be a huge miss in our FA Cup quarter final against Man City a week on Saturday!
Let’s hope he’s back before long and that Darlow steps up in his absence.
