New injury at NUFC as another player looks set to miss Premier League opener vs West Ham

Steve Bruce has revealed that Toon stalwart Paul Dummett is “touch and go” ahead of the new campaign.

With the season starting in less than two weeks, the NUFC boss has revealed that the defender picked up a slight calf injury in our 3-2 win against Doncaster last Friday.

Dummett joins a list of key players – including Callum Wilson, Jonjo Shelvey, Allan Saint-Maximin, Martin Dubravka, Karl Darlow and Miguel Almiron – who missed Friday’s 2-0 win against Burton.

Bruce doesn’t seem to think it’s anything serious, but accepts he’s likely to miss our opening day clash with West Ham.

Here’s what he’s had to say about the defender’s fitness after he sat out our latest pre-season friendly:

“Dummy, unfortunately, nicked a calf last week at Doncaster.

“That’s a little bit of a concern. We’ll see how that is.

“We don’t think it’s anything untoward.

“We think he’ll be touch and go for the start of the season, unfortunately.”

A ball hasn’t been kicked and we are already racking up a concerning number of players on the treatment table.

As well as Dummett, Wilson and Saint-Maximin (illness), we also have Martin Dubravka, Karl Darlow and Jonjo Shelvey on the sidelines – how on Earth has this happened?

Miguel Almiron appears to be injury free, however his complete lack of pre-season leaves him highly unlikely to start on the opening day, with him yet to return from his summer break after competing at Copa America.

Last season was severely hampered by injuries and it almost cost us our Premier League status; we clicked at just the right time once we finally got Willock and a host of key players fit again.

With a depleted squad and no Willock as of yet, we can’t afford this campaign to follow a similar trajectory.

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