Suddenly Eddie Howe has huge injury concerns heading into Carabao Cup final not to mention Anthony Gordon's suspension

With two weeks to go until Newcastle United's biggest game of the season at Wembley, the whole occasion is starting to unravel before our very eyes.

While facing Liverpool is never a cause for joy, there was an air of expectation around Newcastle that they could do something against the Reds on neutral ground, but after today, you'd be hard pressed to find many supporters who have managed to hold on to that confidence.

Before kick-off this afternoon, as Newcastle were dumped out of the FA Cup by Brighton, news broke that Lewis Hall was being sent to see a specialist for an ankle injury he picked up on Wednesday against Liverpool.

Hall had been our best player for the last few games, and losing him today was a big enough blow, but as soon as you hear the word 'specialist' you don't expect the player to be back for the next game, do you?

Newcastle's Carabao Cup chances feel like they're getting slimmer

By full-time today, Eddie Howe's issues had grown even worse. Anthony Gordon got himself sent off during the game, a straight red card too, meaning he will pick up a nice three-match ban for his troubles, which sees him out of West Ham next week, the cup final and Brentford. If we were tinfoil hat sporting conspiracy theorists we'd be thinking back to that A League Of Their Own clip where Gordon spoke about his entire family being Liverpool supporters ... but we aren't, so we won't ... but still.

Then at full time, the main headlines from speaking to Eddie Howe were about injury concerns with Keith Downie summing up the current state of play on X.

Eddie Howe is concerned about injuries ahead of the Cup Final:

“We hope they don’t turn into big problems for us because that would be really tough for us. We don’t have the strength in depth we need…”

🚨 Isak felt tightness and had to come off.
🚨 Trippier had a back problem and needs to come off.
🚨 Botman close but still not fit enough to play today.
🚨 Hall has had his ankle scanned and is awaiting results from specialist. No timescale.
🚨 Gordon suspended.

Sven Botman and Alexander Isak could be OK for next week

Isak's injury isn't expected to be anything bad, but after just missing a game, how can we be confident in that information? Sven Botman is 'close' but how many times did we hear that about Callum Wilson?

With a fully fit, fully available squad, yes, we may have a chance against Liverpool, that's the beauty of football. Anything can happen.

And anything still could happen, but without Hall and Gordon on the left, what are we really expecting in two weeks? I hate to be negative, but our performances lately, combined with Gordon's suspension and the growing injury list, it's hard to be anything but.