Newcastle United v Qarabag team news: Eddie Howe has reacted to being without one of his key players in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Newcastle United will be without several key players when return to Champions League action against Qarabag at St James’ Park on Tuesday night (8pm kick-off).
Captain Bruno Guimaraes, Lewis Miley, Fabian Schar, Tino Livramento and Emil Krafth are all ruled out due to injury. Sven Botman and Yoane Wissa have missed the last three matches but are on course to return to the matchday squad against Qarabag.
Newcastle take a 6-1 lead into the second leg as they look set to secure progress to the last-16 of the Champions League where they will face either Chelsea or Barcelona. The draw for the knockout stages will take place on Friday from 11am.
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Eddie Howe reacts to Malick Thiaw ban
In addition to the injured players, Newcastle will also be without the suspended Malick Thiaw. He picked up his third Champions League yellow card in the first leg tie in Baku last week and became the first Newcastle player to be suspended in the competition this season.
Thiaw’s suspension ends a run of 38 consecutive starts for the German defender since his full debut for the club.
While Newcastle’s summer transfer business has been called into question at times this season, Thiaw has been consistently hailed as the one stand-out success story following his £35million move from AC Milan.
Reacting to Thiaw’s absence, Howe said: “Yeah, it's going to be a blow for us. I said that when the suspension was confirmed that he had a big loss for us at the heart of our defence.
“I think Malick has been hugely impressive this season, a model of consistency. I actually think the last few games, again, has been some of his strongest of the season. I think he's consumed the amount of games he's played as really, really good in that sense.
“I think with the ball, he's come back to being at his very best level. I think defensively he's been superb. I think he's been an incredible signing for us. He's a great lad as well. Settled in really quickly to the group.
“So yeah, he'll be a miss and fingers crossed it’s just one game.”
Howe’s hope that Thiaw will only miss one game comes after the defender wasn’t part of the training group on Monday. Ban and suspensions typically don’t stop players from training, though Thiaw’s relentless schedule and run of starts for Newcastle saw him rested from the session.
Anthony Gordon, Joe Willock, Anthony Elanga and Sandro Tonali were also missing from the training session accessible to the media.
“There were a few players that we just kept inside today,” Howe explained. “No real issues. Four or five players, I think, that we just wanted to look after.”
Newcastle United duo at risk of Champions League ban
Whilst Thiaw will sit out of the return leg at St James’ Park, two of his teammates will be forced to walk a disciplinary tightrope. Both Joelinton and Dan Burn have been shown two yellow cards this season in the Champions League and need to avoid another booking on Tuesday night if they want to feature in the first-leg of the last-16.
Those players would have to be booked a further two times in order to face a ban. Yellow cards are wiped after the quarter-final stage to ensure players cannot miss the final because of an accumulation of bookings.
In addition to Thiaw, Newcastle will also be without Guimaraes, Lewis Miley, Tino Livramento and Fabian Schar due to injury. Yoane Wissa and Botman are doubts for the match while Mark Gillespie and Emil Krafth are ineligible having been left out of the Champions League squad list.
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