· December 13 2024, 16:36
This morning Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe told the gathered media that Nick Pope would be assessed by a specialist today ahead of a decision on whether or not he will play against Leicester City on Saturday.
Shortly after the press briefing concluded, word started to filter out that Nick Pope was increasingly unlikely to make it for the game tomorrow.
Since then, the gravity of the situation has been made more clear by Keith Downie of Sky Sports who took to X to share the latest prognosis on the England 'keeper.
It looks as though Newcastle could be without their first-choice goalkeeper for around a month thanks to the knee injury he picked up last week against Brentford.
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Newcastle will have to call upon a back-up 'keeper for the next month
Keith Downie confirmed on social media that Pope's layoff will extend beyond just the Leicester City game giving Eddie Howe another headache.
"Nick Pope is facing a month on the sidelines after injuring his knee against Brentford last weekend.
"The goalkeeper damaged knee ligaments saving a shot - and not realising at the time.
"Pope will replaced by [Martin] Dubravka or [Odysseas] Vlachodimos against Leicester tomorrow & the hope is he will return next month."
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We expect Martin Dubravka to deputise while Nick Pope is out injured
We're pretty sure that Eddie Howe is going to call upon the Slovakian over the Greek 'keeper tomorrow, but as Dubravka showed for much of last season, he's not the answer, and while there are huge question marks over Vlachodimos given that nobody at the club actually wanted him and the fact he was replaced at Nottingham Forest by Matz Sels, can he really be much worse than Dubravka?
We paid £20 million for Vlachodimos at the end of the day, we might as well get some return from that before we inevitably move him on.
Let's just not wheel out John Ruddy, though, eh?