Newcastle’s game at Southampton off amid Covid and injuries in Howe’s squad

A second Newcastle fixture in the space of four days has been postponed because of Covid and injuries in Eddie Howe’s squad.

Newcastle were due to play at Southampton on Sunday but the Premier League has confirmed that the game, like Thursday’s at Everton, cannot go ahead because of a shortage of players.

Howe is without a number of squad members because of Covid, and injuries suffered by Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser and Allan Saint-Maximin against Manchester United last Monday exacerbated the manager’s problems.

“Newcastle United continue to have ongoing Covid-19 cases and injuries that led to their match against Everton FC being called off earlier this week,” the league said. “The board accepted the postponement application as the club does not have the required number of players available for the match (13 outfield players and one goalkeeper).”

The club are second bottom of the league with one win this season. Their game is the second of the weekend to be postponed, after Norwich’s against Leicester.

Jürgen Klopp has said Liverpool have recorded three new positive Covid-19 cases but the manager does not believe Sunday’s game at Chelsea is close to being called off. The manager declined to name the trio because they are awaiting PCR test confirmations but those affected, plus Thiago Alcântara and Takumi Minamino will be missing.

“Taki is running outside, Thiago not,” Klopp said. “On top of that we have three new Covid cases in the team and a few more in the staff so it’s not so cool in the moment. I’m not able to say who it is but it’ll be pretty clear on the teamsheet the day after tomorrow.

“We aren’t close to getting the game postponed yet. We haven’t had a proper outbreak yet but it’s happening more and more often. It’s like a lottery in the morning when you wait for the result. It was day-by-day pretty much another case and today another one.”

source: theguardian.com