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Newcastle United are without some key players for the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool at Wembley.
Newcastle United are aiming to end their 70-year domestic trophy drought when they face Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final this afternoon (kick-off 4:30pm).
The Magpies touched down in London on Saturday teatime with almost a full complement of players with four unable to feature at Wembley.
Anthony Gordon is into the second game of his three-match ban following his red card in the FA Cup fifth round defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion, while Lewis Hall and Sven Botman are recovering from their respective injuries.
Botman is expected to return before the end of the campaign but Hall has been ruled out until next season after undergoing foot surgery earlier this week.
United are also without club captain Jamaal Lascelles, who is nearing a comeback after a year out with an ACL injury.
Despite being unavailable, three of those four players have been spotted travelling with Howe’s squad to the capital. In a video posted on the club’s social media accounts, Gordon, Botman and Lascelles were shown boarding the team’s flight from Newcastle.
Hall wasn’t, suggesting he has stayed at home. The left-back only underwent his operation on Wednesday so is into the very early stages of his recovery.
Newcastle United challenged to cope with key players
In the absence of key players, Howe has called on his squad to “come together stronger”. After losing Gordon, Botman and Hall within a few days, Newcastle claimed a morale-boosting 1-0 victory at West Ham United on Monday.
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“I think you have to come together stronger,” Howe said at his pre-match press conference. “So in the week that we had that certainly didn't go as planned when we had players and losing big players as well and important players, never easy, but you have to regroup and then you have to come back stronger and you have to come back stronger in a more unified way.
“That's always the key aspect, it's how you respond to it and we try to double down on our core strengths, that doesn't change regarding on individuals available and I think the spirit has been really good and that's why West Ham was so important. It wasn't lost on any of us after the game, that increased our feeling, that increased our unity, that increased our belief internally, we needed that win.
“Training has been good this week, the preparation has been very good, I've been happy with how everything is looking to this point, we're still two days left to go, so yeah, everything's positive now.”
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