Rafa Benitez confirmed that Jamaal Lascelles, Javier Manquillo, Jonjo Shelvey and Matt Ritchie were all injury concerns ahead of Newcastle United’s trip to face Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.
Chronicle reporters Chris Waugh and Lee Ryder who were both in attendance of the Magpies manager’s press conference on Tuesday shared via their Twitter accounts what Benitez said regarding who was available to play in his side’s upcoming League Cup fixture.
Lascelles, Manquillo & Shelvey are doubts. Need to be assessed in next few days. Ritchie also has a knock to his knee. Rafa says "some young players may get a chance vs Forest because of that" #nufc
— Chris Waugh (@ChrisDHWaugh) August 28, 2018
Rafa on Lascelles: “The doctor is waiting for a scan.
“I was talking to him before the game because he came to support the team and after the game.
“I am talking to him all the time.”— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) August 28, 2018
Benitez stated that defender Lascelles, who missed Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea, was to set to undergo a scan to discover the extent of his injury.
OPINION
Luckily Benitez has a few talented youngsters to call upon for the trip against Forest with Sean Longstaff and Jamie Sterry no doubt both eager to feature after being unused substitutes at the weekend. However it is still a concern that key players such as Lascelles, Ritchie and Shelvey could be set to miss games if their injury concerns end up seeing them kept on the sidelines. While it is also bad news for Manquillo, the Spanish full-back has never looked fantastic when in a Magpies shirt and the club only rely on him to be cover as he is able to be deployed as a left-back or right-back. Hopefully Benitez doesn’t have to worry about these players being injured for long and hopefully good news is afoot, especially in Lascelles case. If the defender gets bad news from his upcoming scan than it spells trouble for the Magpies as their defence looks much weaker without him.
