Newcastle United handed new five-month injury blow in boost to Aston Villa & Man Utd

Newcastle United are expected to be without No.1 goalkeeper Nick Pope for the next four to five months.

The 31-year-old dislocated his shoulder during Saturday night's 1-0 win over Manchester United when he dived to his right from a Sergio Reguilon shot that was blocked by Fabian Schar.

Pope immediately signalled for play to stop and was swiftly replaced by Martin Dubravka for the remaining 10 minutes.

Magpies boss Eddie Howe admitted after the game "it didn't look good" and the Daily Telegraph reports that Pope is facing the remainder of the campaign out.

"It looks like he’s dislocated his shoulder," Howe said on Saturday. "Such a strange thing really because he’d have made that dive thousands of times. It just looks like the arm’s kept going on the moist floor and his shoulder has come out of joint.

"We’re going to have to seek a specialist opinion and see what happens but it doesn't look good for him.”

Newcastle's win over Man United put them back into the Premier League top four race. Howe's men sit sixth, level on points with fifth-place Tottenham Hotspur and three behind Aston Villa in fourth.

The injuries continue to mount for Newcastle. Howe was without 10 senior players at the weekend, including the likes of Jacob Murphy, Dan Burn, Callum Wilson, Elliot Anderson, Sean Longstaff, Sven Botman, Joe Willock, Harvey Barnes and Matt Targett.

Howe's side play back-to-back away games against Everton and Tottenham Hotspur this week before hosting AC Milan in the Champions League.