‘High chance’ - Newcastle United star set to miss five games & Eddie Howe fears surgery blow

Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe says there is a “high chance” Alexander Isak won’t return until after the November international break.

Isak was forced to withdraw just 14 minutes into the Magpies’ 1-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday because of a recurring thigh issue.

The Swede went for a scan on Friday - missing this evening’s 2-2 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Howe has revealed his striker is set to miss further matches against Manchester United, Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund and Bournemouth.

“Alex is still where he is,” he told NewcastleWorld . “He’s aggravated the injury he suffered at West Ham and we’ll wait and see whether he’ll be fit before the international break, there’s a high chance he won’t be but we’ll see.”

Meanwhile, Howe fears being without Jacob Murphy for a lengthy period. The winger dislocated shoulder in the Dortmund game and visited a specialist on Friday.

“And Jacob, we fear might need an operation on his shoulder,” Howe added.

Both Isak and Murphy were two of several players to miss the Premier League clash at Molineux, where two goals from Callum Wilson were twice cancelled out by the hosts.

“It was certainly a massively tough game for us today,” Howe said.

“I thought two really good teams and probably a really good spectacle for the viewers today but disappointed not to get over the line and win the game but really proud of what we had to give today off the back of a really challenging week.

“I thought we came on strong late in the game, I was really pleased with that because it has been a physically and mentally challenging week for us but I thought we were the team in the ascendency at the end, they were playing on transitions mainly so I was really pleased with the end part of the game and fitness wise I thought we looked good.

“When you come away from home it’s difficult enough but we had the game away from home, we had the Sandro [Tonali] situation and we’ve had a few injuries in the week so it was a real test today and I’m really pleased with how the players responded to that.”