Report: What Newcastle have been doing behind the scenes to stem the injury crisis

Newcastle United have suffered one of the worst injury crises in recent memory this season, but what is being done about it?

The thing with the injuries that have plagued Eddie Howe's side this season, is that so many of them have been freak occurrences. Jacob Murphy popping his shoulder out after a bad landing, Nick Pope popping his shoulder out after a bad landing, Dan Burn breaking his spine after a bad landing ... wait a minute.

There's also Harvey Barnes' exploding toe, Elliot Anderson's old-man back and Sven Botman's mystery knee injury all keeping first-team players out of contention for long periods of time.

Newcastle have released their head physio this morning

If it was a case of every player pulling up with a twanged hamstring, then at least there'd be a root cause to look into, but given the bizarre nature of the injuries, there's little can be done.

PA

A report in The Sunday Mirror claims that the phsyio department at the club is being tweaked and that does seem to track given that the club this morning announced that head physio Danny Murphy (not that one) has left the club.

The injuries have played an enormous part in Newcastle's middling season with Howe having to use the same players over and over again in a congested schedule, and it's with that in mind that Amanda Staveley understands the issues Howe has faced this season and won't be moving to relieve him of his duties any time soon.

There's no quick fix

A reworking of the physio department should go some way to helping prevent muscle fatigue and injuries brought about by overworking, but there's no mitigating the crazy injuries that we've picked up. A strong case for tweaking the phsyio department would be Joe Willock who started off the season recovering from a hamstring injury which then turned into an achilles injury, he was rushed back into action too soon and his achilles pinged again.

There could also be a case for maybe hiring an Olympic gymnast to come in and teach the team how to land properly after they jump. That may not be a bad move.

Luckily for Howe he's starting to get players back now, but obviously, it will take time for these players to get back up to speed so there's no quick fix on the horizon, we are just going to have to ride it out and maybe lower expectations for this season.