Eddie Howe confirms eight Newcastle stars to miss Manchester United clash

After three seasons in the top half of the table, Newcastle United are currently struggling to fight their way back into a spot for European football for next season.

Currently sat in 11th place in the Premier League, Eddie Howe and his men are still fighting in the Carabao Cup and Champion League.

As it stands, the Magpies are in a strong place to qualify for the Champions League knock-out rounds, with two games left in the group stages.

However, before then, Newcastle have a trip to Old Trafford on Boxing Day, a fixture that Howe is set to be without some of his key men.

With Christmas Day between now and then, the Newcastle manager has spoken at the pre-match press conference, as reported by Chronicle Live,  giving an insight into the club’s injury issues.

Speaking about some of his players, Howe commented on a potential return for Nick Pope, saying: “There’s a chance. He hasn’t trained yet and we hope he might train today. We will see how he does.”

Eddie Howe then addressed the injury of Sven Botman, commenting: “Sven would be in the category of players who are doing well.

He continued: “And again, we hope to get him back pretty soon. When that day is, I’m not quite sure. He has not trained with the group yet. It is potentially good news and he is not too far away.”

However, there was significantly less clarity around the return of Tino Livramento.

Explaining the situation, Howe commented: “We don’t, actually, [have any clarity on his return]. It’s a difficult one, because there’s quite a bit of information.”

He continued: “We’re waiting to get full clarification, and we’re hoping it’s not serious, and he can resume training quite quickly, but before confirming that, we want to be sure we’re right.”

Overall these three are joined by Dan Burn, Kieran Trippier, Jamaal Lascelles, Emil Krafth and Will Osula who are all ruled out of the Boxing Day fixture.

As such, Newcastle are set to be without eight of their key men should Pope and Botman fail to recover in time.