Newcastle United’s injury problems show no sign of easing, with Anthony Gordon and Emil Krafth both having suffered setbacks in this evening’s Carabao Cup defeat to Chelsea.
The Magpies crashed out of the League Cup as they were beaten on penalties at Stamford Bridge, having conceded a stoppage-time equaliser to Mykhailo Mudryk as they drew 1-1.
To make matters worse, they also saw Gordon hobble out of the game at the start of the second half and Krafth fail to reappear after half-time.
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Gordon was hurt in a second-minute challenge from Moises Caicedo that might well have earned the Chelsea midfielder a straight red card, while Krafth was left nursing a nasty gash to his leg.
Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe said: “Emil was too sore to continue. He’s got a nasty gash on his shin, which is quite sore at the moment.
“Anthony is the same. I thought it was a really poor tackle on him. It was the type of tackle you don’t want to see, taking one of our attacking players out of the game. He’s very sore at the minute.
“Should it have been a red card? It’s too difficult to say live and I haven’t seen it again, but I’m taking opinion from other people and they say they thought it was.”
Sven Botman was also replaced at half-time, although Howe revealed the plan was always just to give the centre-half 45 minutes as he made his first start since mid-September.
Howe said: “Sven was planned – 45 minutes was the right step for him. I thought he did very well, so that was a real positive.”
