Newcastle United latest news: Liverpool have been handed a major injury blow ahead of their clash with Newcastle United in the Premier League.
Arne Slot’s side finished third in the Champions League league phase table after putting six past their Azerbaijani opponents at Anfield. A brace from Alexis Mac Allister and goals from Florian Wirtz, Mohamed Salah, Hugo Ekitike and Federico Chiesa secured a comfortable win for Liverpool and progression to the last-16 of the competition.
However, their night got off to the worst possible start when Jeremie Frimpong limped off with a suspected muscle injury. The former Bayer Leverkusen man missed 12 games earlier this campaign with a hamstring injury and worries will be rife on Merseyside that he has suffered a recurrence of that issue.
Wataru Endo replaced Frimpong on Wednesday night, with Dominik Szoboszlai slotting into right-back. Conor Bradley has been ruled-out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury - meaning the Reds are down to the bare bones ahead of Saturday’s meeting with the Magpies.
“It’s obvious that if a player goes out like that you don’t expect him to play Saturday against Newcastle,”Slot saidafter their win over Qarabag. “It’s a muscle injury and a muscle usually has to do with overloading a player. Not always of course, because he stretched in a moment, but it is the risk.”
The Reds also have to deal with a number of other selection issues in defence with Joe Gomez sidelined through injury and Ibrahima Konate currently unavailable due to personal reasons. Youngster Wellity Lucky has also suffered an injury, leading Slot to call-up Amara Nallo to his Champions League squad ahead of their meeting with Qarabag.
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Ryan Gravenberch was forced to partner Virgil van Dijk on Wednesday night, with that pairing potentially linking up once again at the weekend.
Newcastle United injury news
Newcastle United will head to Merseyside with plenty of injury issues of their own to deal with. Fabian Schar and Tino Livramento will both miss out through injury, with neither player expected back in action for the foreseeable future.
Joelinton, the Shields Gazette’s Man of the Match during their triumph over Liverpool at Wembley back in March, has also been ruled-out of featuring this weekend after he picked up a groin injury against Aston Villa on Sunday. The Brazilian is expected to miss their next few matches.
Speaking about Joelinton’s injury before his side’s draw with PSG, Eddie Howe said: “He’s had a scan and we don’t think it’s a bad injury, but he’ll possibly be out for a few weeks.
“He’s going to see another opinion just to make sure we’re on the right lines. So although he won’t be out for a long time, he’s missed a few games because we’ve got so many fixtures.”
Bruno Guimaraes is also a doubt to feature at Anfield as he continues his recovery from an ankle injury. Guimaraes was named on the bench by Howe in Paris, but was not used in the French capital - likely with a view to minimising the risk of a recurrence.
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