Eddie Howe receives triple injury boost with Carabao Cup final on horizon for Newcastle United

After only dealing with outgoing transfers and no first team incomings in January, Newcastle United made what they believe to be a calculated risk.

That plan has already come back to haunt them with three big first team players nursing injuries, two of which are centre-backs, a position in which Newcastle were already light.

Anthony Gordon and Sven Botman missed the trip to Birmingham City at the weekend with a quad and a knee issue, respectively, while Dan Burn had to come off during the game with a groin issue.

Moving on Lloyd Kelly seemed like such a good idea until then.

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Anthony Gordon is expected to be fit to play on Saturday

The trio have now all had scans on their injuries and it's good news all round, excellent news for one, according to a report in The Daily Mail.

Anthony Gordon's quad issue looks to be fine, and the pacy winger is likely to be back to face Manchester City on Saturday.

However, that game may come too soon for the defensive pair, however both should be back in time for the trip to Wembley next month.

Newcastle may have to field an unbalanced defence to take care of Erling Haaland

This leaves Eddie Howe with some tweaks to make in defence going up against Manchester City on Saturday, though, and that could be a problem.

We expect Emil Krafth with partner Fabian Schar in the centre of the defence, which wouldn't be an issue if we were going up against anyone else, but even this off-kilter Man City side can cause us problems.

Hopefully, Eddie Howe will clear things up for us on Friday morning during his press conference. Although we'll not hold our breath, we know how little he likes to give away.