Another Newcastle medical mystery: £12m man 'in contention' for West Ham now out against Fulham

Those of you with a keen eye may have noticed that Newcastle United's squad to face Everton last night did not include one Kieran Trippier.

The England international has been out since he picked up a knock in the game against Wolves at the start of March but it was expected that he'd make his return following the international break, which would have seen him in the squad to face West Ham on Saturday.

That wasn't meant to be, however, but it was then said that he could be ready to face Everton on Tuesday - this, again, did not come to pass.

Now it has been said that he'll not face Fulham on Saturday either, with a report in The Athletic claiming he could be missing for another three weeks.

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It's Krafu time!

Look, we know stuff happens, setbacks can occur, but doesn't it seem like Newcastle players have been having a few too many of these "setbacks" this season?

With Tino Livramento also out for around a month after rolling his ankle against West Ham, that leaves Emil Krafth as our only recognised right-back to hold the fort, and he's not long been back after an ACL injury which is always a worry.

Miguel Almiron, who also came off injured on Saturday is also expected to be out for a month.

There definitely needs to be an investigation into this season's injuries

The thing is, these are the early estimates, and at what point this season have any of our players actually come back before they were expected to? And in the rare occasions when that has happened, how well has that gone for us? (Answer: not very well at all ... Sven Botman, Jacob Murphy, Joe Willock).

Fans will hit the roof if an investigation finds that the bulk of these issues were avoidable if a different route was taken by our medical staff. Or is it simply Eddie Howe giving false hope in press conferences and the players were never really close to returning when he said they are?

The good news is, there are just eight more games to go and we can put this season behind us. Even if we do end up bagging a European spot, I don't think anyone will be sad to see the end of this campaign.