Newcastle United are down to just 16 first team players as they prepare to face Birmingham in their FA cup third round replay.
Their manager Rafael Benitez is being forced to travel to the midlands without 12 members of his squad. Three of which, are goalkeepers.
Despite the importance of the win at Brentford at the weekend, it also came at a cost to the threadbare Magpies.
Having returned to the top of The Championship table, and opened up a seven-point gap between themselves and Leeds United in 3rd place, they lost three more first teamers to injury.
Dwight Gayle, Isaac Hayden and Vurnun Anita all had to leave the field during various stages of the fixture on Saturday afternoon.
This leaves Newcastle with an unfortunate selection dilemma ahead of the replay.
Currently, they have six players injured, another three on international duty (African Cup Of Nations) and three players loaned out earlier in the season – who are subsequently cup-tied.
However, one is not unsurprising to most. That one is Cheick Tiote, who has looked set to leave the club since the beginning of the season. Goalkeeper, Rob Elliot who has been injured since March, is one that does return, however.
The only saving factor in this dilemma for The Magpies – is the return of Jonjo Shelvey. The former Liverpool and Swansea man has been missing for five matches following his FA misconduct charge.
The available players for the FA cup tie are as follows:
(from The Newcastle Chronicle) Goalkeepers: Karl Darlow, Matz Sels, Rob Elliot.
Defenders: Ciaran Clark, Jamaal Lascelles, Paul Dummett, DeAndre Yedlin, Grant Hanley.
Midfielders: Jonjo Shelvey, Matt Ritchie, Jack Colback, Achraf Lazaar, Cheick Tiote
Forwards: Yoan Gouffran, Ayoze Perez, Daryl Murphy.
