Good Tottenham and Fulham news as Newcastle United hit with hammer blows

Eddie Howe has a depleted back line to deal with.

Newcastle United continue to be plagued by injuries ahead of their meetings with Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur this month. The Magpies will be without a number of key players due to long-term problems, which were exacerbated as they faced West Ham last weekend.

Eddie Howe's side play Everton at St James' Park tonight before travelling to Craven Cottage on Saturday. After that, the Tyneside club welcome Spurs to the North East on Saturday, April 13.

Newcastle United will be without club captain Jamaal Lascelles for those fixtures after the centre-back was substituted in the first half against West Ham due to injury. Lascelles isn't the first name on Eddie Howe's teamsheet, but it comes as a significant blow after Sven Botman was ruled out for six to nine months with an ACL injury late last month.

The Magpies since confirmed that Lascelles had suffered a 'rupture to the ACL in his right knee' during the match and would need surgery that would also rule him out for up to nine months. Fabian Schar and 32-year-old Paul Dummett, who hasn't started a Premier League game since January 2022, are the club's only fit centre-backs.

The news will come as a boost for London sides Fulham and Spurs ahead of their meetings with Newcastle United, who will be depleted defensively and face a battle to stop the likes of Rodrigo Muniz and Son Heung-min from finding the back of the net.

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Those injuries add to a treatment list that includes Matt Targett, Kieran Trippier, Joelinton, Callum Wilson and Nick Pope.

Speaking after beating West Ham 4-3 in a top flight thriller, Eddie Howe said: "I always think there’s no such thing as bad luck, I think you create your own luck. We play a really high-intensity style and a real physical game. Naturally, if we didn’t play that style and played a different way, the physical cost on our players would be less.

"But when you look at some of the injuries we’ve had this year, and we’ve analysed and reanalysed them, then for a lot of them, you can’t put them into any category other than bad luck, even though I don’t really believe in it.

"I could go through injuries, and it’s been a really strange one. Even [against West Ham], that’s been the case with some of the injuries we’ve got. I know some of the players have been away on international duty, and that puts an extra load on them, and I think you could see with West Ham, some of their players were going down as well. The speed of the game is definitely getting quicker, week on week."