Without a league win since the opening day and numerous injuries, Newcastle are having a more difficult 2022/23 than many expected.
It was a piece of news that Newcastle United supporters would definitely not have wanted to hear.
While away on international duty with Brazil, Bruno Guimaraes had picked up a hamstring injury that left him out of contention for their friendly match against Ghana. Newcastle requested his early return and he was back in England by the time of Brazil’s second match against Tunisia.
In total, Bruno’s international break consisted of little more than some training and a trip to Disneyland Paris. It remains unclear whether he’ll be available for selection for their upcoming trip to Fulham, though the club are believed to be optimistic that he will be fit for selection.
Whether that will be in the first team or on the substitutes’ bench – or even not at all – remains to be seen. He wasn’t the club’s only casualty during the break, either. Alexander Isak picked up a leg injury while training with Sweden and missed their two Nations League matches with Serbia and Slovenia. He is not expected to be anywhere near the team for the Fulham game, and may be out for several weeks.
The loss of these two players would be bad enough, but Newcastle’s injury list doesn’t end there. Chris Wood picked up a rib injury while playing for New Zealand in their friendly against Australia at the weekend, Callum Wilson has missed their last four games with a hamstring injury and may or may not be back at the weekend, and there also remains something of a question mark over the involvement of Allan Saint-Maximin, who’s been out with another hamstring injury. That’s a lot of hamstring injuries.
Newcastle will travel to Craven Cottage exactly midway in the Premier League table, but there is a growing feeling that all is not quite going according to plan for the club. Newcastle have played seven league matches, but of these they’ve won one, lost one and drawn the other five, and with their only win of the season so far having come on the opening day against Nottingham Forest, pressure may soon start to build on manager Eddie Howe.
The case of Alexander Isak offers a glimpse of the opportunities and challenges presented by the club’s oil money-infused expectations. On the one hand, Isak scored a wonderful goal on his debut against Liverpool and has now scored two in his three Premier League appearances for the club, after…
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