When Nick Pope was completely absent from the Newcastle United squad for last Saturday’s win against Everton, many initially speculated that Howe had made a clear decision over who he wanted to start the game between him and Aaron Ramsdale.
It swiftly emerged however that the decision was entirely out of Howe’s hands.
Having reportedly suffered a groin injury in Friday’s training session, Pope didn’t travel with the squad to Merseyside, and Ramsdale was able to enjoy a relatively comfortable performance at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
And it looks like the loanee will have plenty of time between the sticks this month, as the full extent of Pope’s injury looks to have been revealed.
According to Sky Sports’ Keith Downie, Nick Pope is set to be sidelined for the next three weeks due to a groin injury.
So not only will he miss tonight’s game against Spurs at St James’ Park, but some huge games across each of the Premier League, Carabao Cup and Champions League.
Including Spurs, Ramsdale will now be set to start against Burnley (H) , Bayer Leverkusen (A), Sunderland (A), Fulham (H) and most likely Chelsea (H), which takes place on the 20th of December.
Judging by Downie’s report, it looks like the earliest game Pope will be available for will be the Boxing Day trip to Manchester United.
As much as Howe values Ramsdale, you can tell that Pope is one of his truly most dependable players, and as the most recently appointed ‘vice-captains’ at the club, it will be a big blow to the rest of the team.
Pope now joins both Kieran Trippier and Will Osula in missing out on much of a packed December fixture list: one which could push the squad to its absolute limits.
Trippier is guaranteed to miss both the trip to Leverkusen and the derby, whilst Osula is reportedly out for another month due to his ongoing ankle concern. The availability of both Sven Botman and Yoane Wissa is up in the air, although the latter may be back on the bench very soon.
Howe will feel very lucky that we included Ramsdale in our Champions League squad in particular, as with John Ruddy not making the cut, the only other goalkeepers included in our European squad are 21-year-old Max Thompson and 19-year-old Adam Harrison.
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