22-year-old Brighton man Newcastle tried to sign is now a doubt for tomorrow's clash at St James' Park

It's never nice to celebrate another side's injuries, but we can't help but feel a small wave of relief when a decent opposition player is ruled out of an upcoming game against Newcastle United.

With our injury record this season, we'd be tempting fate if we were to take too much delight in another side's misfortune, but Brighton, who are already missing some key players, now have another major doubt ahead of tomorrow's game and that can only be a good thing for Newcastle.

For a while, Newcastle looked the likely destination for Brazilian forward Joao Pedro as the Magpies courted the then-Watford star before ultimately signing Alexander Isak for over twice as much as what they'd have paid for the young Brazilian.

After that move fell apart Brighton swooped in to sign the 22-year-old in May 2023 and he has gone on to rack up an impressive 20 goals and two assists in his 38 appearances this season.

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Joao Pedro won't get to add to his goals tally at St James' Park

It now looks as though he won't get to add to that tally tomorrow as Roberto De Zerbi confirmed in his pre-match press conference (via The Metro) that Joao Pedro picked up a knock in training today.

"Joao Pedro has an ankle problem. It’s sad news for us. Today it happened and I don’t know if he can play tomorrow.

"I am sad for that because Joao is important for us, especially in this moment when Julio Enciso and Ansu Fati are not at the top of their level of condition."

I'm tempting fate again by stating that I am confident of a win

It also looks as though another player linked with Newcastle before moving to Brighton won't be involved either as De Zerbi said that Ansu Fati is not 100% either.

That leaves Brighton with plenty of top players who are likely to miss out tomorrow which should make life easier for Newcastle. I'm annoyingly confident which means something is bound to go wrong.

Fingers crossed that I am not actually a jinx we do make this game look as easy as I'm expecting us to. Please. I swore I'd never express my confidence again, but I just can't help it this time, all signs point towards a convincing win. Let's sign off our home campaign with a flourish.