Howe set to turn to Loris Karius for Newcastle’s decisive game with Milan
Newcastle’s hopes of Champions League progression could rest in the hands of their third-choice goalkeeper Loris Karius at home against Milan after Eddie Howe admitted that Martin Dubravka’s fitness is “unclear”.
Howe turned coy when he was asked why Dubravka, Sean Longstaff and Anthony Gordon failed to train with the first team on Tuesday before a match his team must win in order to have a chance of reaching the competition’s knockout phase.
“You can read into it what you want,” the Newcastle manager said, but he did not deny that Dubravka is struggling with back and shoulder problems. With Nick Pope, Newcastle’s first-choice keeper already out with a complicated shoulder dislocation, Karius is on standby to make his first Champions League appearance since a disastrous display in the 2018 final for Liverpool against Real Madrid.
While it is believed there is an outside chance that Dubravka may yet pass a late fitness test, potential redemption beckons for Karius, whose career has flatlined since his glaring mistakes in that 3-1 defeat for Jürgen Klopp’s side in Kyiv.
Although the German, 30, was almost certainly playing against Real with concussion, he seemed to have a subsequent loss of nerve and made more errors while representing Besiktas in the Europa League during a subsequent loan spell from Liverpool.
Karius has made only one senior appearance for Newcastle, when he performed creditably as Howe’s side lost to Manchester United in last season’s League Cup final on a day when Pope was suspended and Dubravka cup-tied.
He is set to re-enter Howe’s planning at a moment when his injury-hit squad have conceded seven goals in the course of two successive Premier League defeats at Everton and Tottenham.
Newcastle,
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