Krul injury on international duty means Newcastle keeper crisis
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Only Tyne and Wear rivals Sunderland (18) have conceded more goals than Newcastle United (17) in the Premier League this campaign, and now the Magpies have lost number one Tim Krul to a serious knee injury.
Steve McClaren’s winless team occupy the top flight basement and are 11/10 third-favourites for relegation with Coral, so losing their Dutch international goalkeeper for what looks like being the rest of the season is a huge blow.
“I’m devastated the scan has confirmed my biggest fear,” Krul said on Twitter. “My recovery and hard work starts now to fully recover.”
— Tim Krul (@TimKrul) October 11, 2015
With Karl Darlow sidelined by a sprained ankle, Republic of Ireland understudy Rob Eliot is the only fit senior goalie at St James’ Park, meaning teenage talent Freddie Woodman has been recalled from a loan spell at Crawley Town as cover.
Some members of McClaren’s beleaguered team should be experiencing a sense of deja vu as last December, ironically also in and around derby day with Sunderland hosting this time the weekend after next (October 25th), a keeping crisis plagued the Tyneside team under predecessor Alan Pardew.
Jak Alnwick, now with Port Vale, had to go between the sticks with both Krul and Eliot out as the Black Cats came from St James’ Park with all three points thanks to last-gasp winner from Adam Johnson.
Ageing ex-Argentina international Fabricio Coloccini, who skippers the Magpies, has been marshalling a defence without a senior left back to boot. It is hoped Paul Dummett and Massadio Haidara will return to feature for the home game with Norwich City, but they’ll both be lacking in match fitness.
The Canaries should thus fancy their chances of a result on Tyneside, and victory for last term’s Championship play-off winners will put real daylight between themselves and the relegation places.
McClaren has previously talked of crisis at Newcastle, but failure to win against a team that has come up and on derby day – with old boss Sam Allardyce now plotting the Toon Army’s downfall – will deepen it further.
