Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie gave Newcastle United fans a bit of a fright with a post on social media.
Newcastle's squad is down to whatever comes next after 'barebones' so any potential sign of a new injury is a huge cause for concern.
Geordies' hearts were in their mouths today when they saw the opening line of Keith Downie's post on X.
Downie was at Newcastle's Benton training ground and delivered an update on who was taking part in the day's exercises.
Despite reports yesterday that Sven Botman was due to return to training this week, Downie said there was no sign of the Dutchman today. However, it was his opening line about Kieran Trippier that got hearts racing initially.
"No sign of Kieran Trippier at training today but understand he was inside receiving individual treatment & nothing to concern.
None of Botman, [Joe] Willock, [Callum] Wilson, [Elliot] Anderson, [Dan] Burn, [Sean] Longstaff, [Jacob] Murphy or [Harvey] Barnes trained w/the group so expecting same squad to face Everton (- Pope)"
Thankfully the second part of the sentence allayed the fears and it's expected that the man Craig Burley recently hailed as 'brilliant' on ESPN will be fit and available for Everton on Thursday.
While, under normal circumstances, we'd not panic given how brilliant Tino Livramento has been so far, the fact is we need Tino on the left side of defence where he's been outstanding in the last couple of games.
We of course have Lewis Hall who could slot in at left-back and have Tino move back to the right if Trippier were to be unavailable, but we'd rather not have to think about that, thanks.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
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1 |
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23 | 35 | 56 |
2 |
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24 | 27 | 50 |
3 |
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24 | 13 | 47 |
4 |
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24 | 16 | 43 |
5 |
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24 | 13 | 41 |
6 |
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24 | 13 | 41 |
7 |
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24 | 13 | 40 |
8 |
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24 | -3 | 37 |
9 |
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24 | 4 | 36 |
10 |
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24 | -3 | 34 |
11 |
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24 | 0 | 31 |
12 |
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24 | -2 | 30 |
13 |
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24 | -6 | 29 |
14 |
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24 | 11 | 27 |
15 |
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24 | -17 | 27 |
16 |
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23 | -5 | 26 |
17 |
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24 | -18 | 19 |
18 |
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24 | -28 | 17 |
19 |
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24 | -27 | 16 |
20 |
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24 | -36 | 9 |