Newcastle United’s Champions League survival hopes have been dealt a brutal double blow, with Eddie Howe revealing fresh injuries to midfield linchpins Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes ahead of Wednesday’s winner takes all trip to Paris Saint Germain.
The Magpies, reeling from a damaging Premier League defeat to Aston Villa, now face the daunting prospect of a must-win match at the Parc des Princes without their engine room. Both players limped off at Villa Park, leaving Howe with a looming selection nightmare.
“He felt his groin,” Howe said of Joelinton post-match, his concern palpable. “We don’t know how serious that is…” The news on Guimaraes was equally vague but worrying, with the manager admitting his side sorely missed the Brazilian’s creativity. “There was certainly an element of our game that got hurt by him not being here,” Howe conceded.
The pair join an already crowded treatment room containing Valentino Livramento, Emil Krafth, Jacob Murphy, and the crucial Fabian Schar. The timing could not be worse. Newcastle sit seventh in the convoluted UCL League Phase, level on 13 points with their French hosts. With a pack of six other teams also on that tally, only a positive result will guarantee a place in the new playoff round.
The stats make grim reading. Bookmakers give a patched up Newcastle just a 17% chance of victory against a PSG side equally desperate for the points. It sets the stage for a nerve shredding finale where Howe’s depleted squad must dig deeper than ever.
For the manager, it’s a brutal test of his resources and resolve. Having built this team around the formidable Guimaraes Joelinton axis, he must now find a way to scrap for a result in Paris without them. The Magpies’ European adventure is hanging by a thread, and the two men most capable of saving it might be watching from the stands.
