‘If you look’ - Premier League boss makes remarkable Newcastle United 'excuse' claim

Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Gary O’Neil believes his team are suffering a worse injury crisis than Newcastle United.

Supporters - and Eddie Howe - have grown bored with injury discourse that has plagued the Magpies’ season. A startling fact is that Newcastle have missed more than 1,500 days due to setbacks this season - more than any other Premier League club.

The busy Benton treatment table, coupled with Sandro Tonali’s absence for breaching betting regulations, are cited as two reasons behind Newcastle’s drop-off in 2023-24. But Howe has pulled the campaign around to have United in with a strong chance of Europa League football.

That is despite Newcastle having 11 players - a full starting XI - ruled out of action. However, Wolves boss O’Neil claimed he has a worse situation to deal with following their 2-0 defeat against Arsenal.

They currently have seven first-team stars out but O’Neil has insisted the strength of Newcastle’s squad makes their situation easier. He said: “I haven’t checked but I can’t imagine there’s another team in the country as short as we are at the moment. I think 10 senior outfield players were available to play 90 minutes today.

“It’s a tough situation. If you look at the number of injuries, it’s probably not in excess of some of the other clubs.

“If you look at Newcastle and Aston Villa, they’ve had quite a few missing. But their starting point is probably 25 or 26 players and ours is 19. Take seven away from 19 and it gets pretty short pretty quickly.”