Steve Bruce has revealed that three key first team players are struggling with injuries following last night’s 2-0 defeat at the Etihad.
Jonjo Shelvey and Ryan Fraser did not travel to Manchester after picking up groin injuries while Callum Wilson was an unused substitute – as a lacklustre Newcastle played with the hope of keeping the scoreline as low as possible.
Bruce claims Shelvey has played too many games, says Fraser suffered a new injury at Brentford and states that Wilson didn’t feature at The Etihad as he has a knock that’s left him “not quite 100%”:
“Jonjo Shelvey had a groin injury and he is not right, he has played too many games. We will see if we can get a few back, once we do I’m sure we will be okay.
“He (Wilson) has got a knock as well, so he’s not quite 100%. He’s played four games in 12 days, so it’s important to look after him a bit.”
“Unfortunately, he (Fraser) hurt his groin against Brentford.”
So, it looks like we’ll be without Shelvey and Fraser against Liverpool on Wednesday.
The Scottish international is the most troubling concern for Newcastle as he has hardly been fit since he arrived here.
We knew he’d not played since March after his release at Bournemouth, however he’s not only taken time to get up to speed but has now picked up two separate muscle injuries over the past six weeks.
It was only a fortnight ago ahead of our trip to Leeds that Bruce declared him to be ‘fully fit and raring to go’, so it is worrying that he has now ended up back on the treatment table.
Add in the absence of Allan Saint-Maximin and skipper Jamal Lascelles and the current Newcastle side is starting to look extremely weak for a top flight outfit.
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TOON playing with 10 men again joelinton waste of time not committed to toon
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