So, after the damaging first half of December on the injury front, it’s time to look at the fitness emergency in Newcastle United’s senior squad.
As Eddie Howe recently pointed out, having a match every three days has taken its toll, especially on those who have also played most of the previous two seasons, with long cup runs and European fixtures added to the domestic league.
The team’s fatigue contributed to a bizarre goal in the derby, and also to the referees once again reacting softly to blatant yellow/red card challenges from the opponents, in an important match.
Hopefully everyone can now move on to what’s important: getting back into the top four or five of the Premier League at the end of the season and trying to get deep into the Champions League (plus a resounding victory in the reverse derby in March).
A fully available (well-rounded ability) Newcastle United squad will be essential to this as this season will now feature at least 54+ matches.
Starting with the worst affected area of Newcastle United’s squad.
We have two fit central defenders in Schar and Thiaw, maybe just because Malick Thiaw didn’t play that much at Milan last season and at the start of this season at NUFC, since he started playing, Schar got some decent rest. Not seeing Lascelles on the bench in recent games, I assume this is due to injury as no center backs can be on the bench, no team ever does that (even Fulham had Issa Diop on the bench).
The overall list of defender injuries includes Botman, Burn, Lascelles, Krafth, Trippier and Livramento. Hall lost against Fulham, but was fortunate to play against Chelsea.
Plus now a 42 year old Ruddy regularly on the bench as second choice available goalkeeper, Nick Pope still out and Ramsdale fit perhaps because he hasn’t played much this season either!
In front
Up front we have Nick Woltemade in the red zone, but while playing, Yoane Wissa still couldn’t play the 90 minutes, while Osula got injured.
In midfield, Joelinton is currently injured, Tonali has not been able to play 90 minutes three times a week since that serious illness in mid-November, while Ramsey is not operating at full speed.
Lewis Miley is fresh due to a lack of minutes so far, but that could change.
Somehow Bruno continues to give 90 minutes every three days (touchwood), but we give him breaks every now and then because we can’t risk the alternative. The fact that Willock is not injured is a rare sight anyway.
On the wing, our best crosser Murphy’s minutes are taken up due to his heel problem, for which he is not being operated on. The fact that Elanga is still finding his feet and Gordon’s continuous 90-minute playing time in the 2023/2024 season (also for England in both summers, although he was partly on the bench in the latter) has him overtaken in 2025, both in terms of form and fitness. Injury-prone Barnes remains fit, perhaps mainly because he did not play too much last season.
Worse than two years ago?
This is perhaps even worse than two years ago, when we could at least put a team on the field, but had no seniors on the bench. Almost the entire team is suffering from an injury. We have a better Newcastle United team, but no one can be available regularly despite rotating and managing their minutes. In addition, the rotation ensures that there is a lack of rhythm in the starting eleven, and you notice this when you play away from home.
All of this makes managing/improving Newcastle United’s squad throughout 2026, including both transfer windows, crucial.
I’ll be assessing Newcastle United’s squad and what I think it needs in the upcoming 2026 transfer windows in part two of this article, which I’ll forward to The Mag shortly.
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