‘Way to go’ - Newcastle United dealt six-week injury blow

Eddie Howe has confirmed Newcastle United will be without Sven Botman for another “couple of weeks”.

The Dutchman hasn’t featured since the 8-0 win at Sheffield United last month because of a knee injury. It was hoped Botman would return after the international break but he was absent for Saturday afternoon’s 4-0 win over Crystal Palace.

Howe confirmed after the game the 23-year-old is facing an extended spell on the sidelines, meaning that’ll be six weeks out in total. Botman is at risk of missing further matches against Borussia Dortmund, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Manchester United and Arsenal.

“He wasn’t close today,” the Magpies’ boss told reporters. “Obviously I couldn’t say that yesterday [Friday] but he hasn’t trained yet, he’s got a bit of a way to go. Hopefully it won’t be too long but next couple of weeks he won’t be fit.”

Jamaal Lascelles and Fabian Schar are expected to continue their centre-back partnership in Botman’s absence. The pair kept a clean sheet versus Palace as United extended their unbeaten run to eight matches ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League clash at home to Dortmund.

On the win, which came courtesy of goals from Jacob Murphy, Anthony Gordon, Sean Longstaff and Callum WIlson, Howe said: “It was a really important game today and we can’t underestimate how tough those games are because you don’t have a full squad. We’re having to manage players that have come a long way and had a big mental load for their country so I’m really pleased with the players’ response to that.

“These are very tough games. Crystal Palace don’t concede a lot of goals, we knew the first goal today was going to be really, really important and thankfully we got it quite early.”