Newcastle United have been plagued by injuries all season, with Eddie Howe yet to have a fully fit squad to choose from for a single game.
Alexander Isak’s self-imposed exile and Lewis Hall’s fitness struggles were the first absences, with new signing Yoane Wissa picking up an injury before even making his debut and Anthony Gordon missing three games through suspension.
Fellow arrival Jacob Ramsey has also been sidelined, but the midfielder should finally return in Saturday’s fixture against Brighton.
The biggest blow of all, however, was losing star full-back Tino Livramento to a knee injury.
Everyone feared the worst when Livramento was stretchered off against Arsenal, knowing he had suffered an ACL tear earlier in his career.
Thankfully, the injury wasn’t that bad, but he is still out of action for two months. Eddie Howe has revealed he is ‘positive’ about his recovery.
Eddie Howe says Tino Livramento is ‘positive’ about injury comeback
Howe’s first press conference in a fortnight on Friday touched on a range of topics from Joe Willock getting ‘lost in a maze‘ to local hero Sam Fender winning the Mercury Prize.
But football obviously took precedence and the manager offered an uplifting update on how Livramento is doing.
Howe said: “He is out of the brace he was in, and every time I speak to him, he seems positive about his return.
“There’s not massive changes in the timescale he was given, but he is going about his recovery well.”
That’s good news for Newcastle, who are severely light on options at full-back with Hall now suffering from a hamstring issue.
As a result, 35-year-old Kieran Trippier is having to start every game and Dan Burn has been forced back out to left-back. Any further injuries and Newcastle would be in trouble.
Eddie Howe verdict on Newcastle opponents Brighton
Newcastle couldn’t have been handed a much tougher fixture in their first game back after the international break, though they have a good record in such games.
Brighton have become Newcastle’s bogey side and the Magpies haven’t defeated them in five attempts or won at the Amex since 2017.
Former winger Yankuba Minteh scored twice against Newcastle last season and could be a problem again against the Toon’s ageing full-back pairing.
Speaking on Brighton, Howe said: “When you look back now, that point at the time was a frustrating one for us but it turned out to be really valuable.
“Brighton are a team we always have tough games against and they are really well managed and have some good players.
“This group of games will potentially be a defining period of the season for us. This will set us up one way or another, and we need to be as aggressive as we can to take as many points as possible.
“It is a team that we always have tough games against; they are well managed and coached, and have some very good players in their squad.
“I thought we played well at their place last year, one of our better away performances, and that point ended up being so valuable for us.”
Newcastle are yet to win away from home in the Premier League this season and the manager also commented on their form away from St. James’ Park.
“We continue to look at it on a game-by-game basis,” he added.
“There is a lot of good in our away performances, I back the players, I back the team, we will come good in that respect, in front of goal.
“There’s a lot of good in our defensive structure, and that’s a positive thing, going away and being defensively solid.”