Newcastle United Eddie Howe is hopeful that Alexander Isak will not miss the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool next month.
The good news from Howe after the game was that the injury was not too serious and that the decision to leave him out completely was a close one. But without him, Newcastle lacked any type of goal threat in the final third and failed to fire in a shot on target.
Isak was ruled out for the important clash and now faces fresh assessment ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup tie against Brighton & Hove Albion. After the Liverpool game, Howe said: “It goes without saying how important he (Isak) is to us. I thought you could see that today.
“It was a late decision, around midday today. He just didn’t feel right with his groin, so we didn’t want to take the risk – we’ve got too many big games to come.”
Howe revealed he had a chat with Isak just ahead of the game and they both decided it was better that he rested the groin injury with Wembley on the horizon.
The head coach added: “I had a chat with him around lunchtime to see how he felt. We knew he was feeling something yesterday. We hoped that it would improve overnight, but it didn’t improve enough.”
And Howe was hoping that Sven Botman and Joelinton will return for the encounter with the Seagulls after just missing out at Anfield. He said: “I think they’ll be there or thereabouts for Sunday. That would be a massive boost. It’s difficult to say because they haven’t trained with the team yet, but fingers crossed.”
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