Newcastle United injuries compared to Premier League rivals in nailbiting Champions League race

It’s a big few weeks in the race for the Champions League as the Premier League season’s conclusion draws closer.

With both the top and the bottom of the table all sorted in terms of the title and relegation, eyes turn to the race to finish in the top five positions at the end of the season. As it stands, it looks to be a five-way race for three positions.

Newcastle are in the best position, sitting in third place in the table. However, they are just one point ahead of Man City with Chelsea and Nottingham Forest two behind, while Aston Villa are just slightly more behind with a five point gap.

At the minute, eyes are on the dreaded sixth position, currently occupied by Forest. The Reds do have a game in hand, due to their involvement in the FA Cup semi-final over the weekend.

It’s the time of the year where Newcastle fans will be watching games and results hoping for a favour from the opposition. Things like the availability of players and injuries in the squad could also have a big impact.

Therefore, here’s a look at the latest injury news from the Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City, Chelsea and Aston Villa camps ahead of the final run-in.

Eddie Howe currently has injury concerns over four players, with two definitely ruled out for the remainder of the season. Full-back Lewis Hall is continuing his recovery from ankle surgery.

Speaking earlier this month, assistant manager Jason Tindall revealed that he doesn’t expect him to make a comeback before the end of the season, with concentration on coming back in time for the 2025/26 campaign.

Defender Jamall Lascelles is in a similar situation. He has been out for over a year since injuring his ACL back in March last year, and concentration will be on returning for the new season.

Another player who could potentially miss the end of the season is full-back Matt Targett, who has a slight hamstring injury. He was left out of the squad for last weekend’s 3-0 win over Ipswich.

There is more uncertainty about the availability of midfielder Joelinton, who is set to see a specialist and undergo a scan this week due to the recurrence of a knee injury. The club face a waiting game as to the extent of the injury and how many games it will rule him out for.

Howe has also admitted that Anthony Gordon has still not 100 percent recovered from his injury, he has however featured off the bench in recent games.

Manchester City
City currently have four key players out injured, but all four could still potentially make a comeback before the end of the season.

Influential midfielder Rodri is nearing the end of his recovery from an ACL injury. Both him and striker Erling Haaland are back in training.

Haaland has been missing since the end of March with a knee injury, but has now returned to the grass in individual training.

In terms of Rodri, Pep Guardiola has revealed he is waiting for the ‘green light’ from doctors to be able to give him minutes on the pitch.

Defensive duo Nathan Ake and John Stones could also make a comeback. Ake underwent surgery in March with a 10-week timeframe put on his recovery.

It was a similar timeline for Stones who suffered his injury in the Champions League exit against Real Madrid.

Chelsea
Chelsea have confirmed that defender Wesley Fofana is set to miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his hamstring.

Winger Omari Kellyman also confirmed back in March that his season has come to an end through a hamstring injury.

Chelsea could still potentially welcome back two more players form hamstring injuries before the end of the season.

Enzo Maresca has confirmed that striker Marc Guiu is ‘getting closer’. Full-back Malo Gusto has also suffered a minor injury but it’s not expected to end his season.

Chelsea will be without Mykhailo Mudryk who is serving a provisional suspension after testing positive for a banned substance while on international duty last year.

Nottingham Forest
Forest have just three injury concerns ahead of the final few weeks of the campaign. The main one of those is full-back Ola Aina.

The defender has missed the last four games in all competitions since injuring his calf against Manchester United. He has however said he is hopeful of making a return before the end of the season.

“Hopefully, yeah. I’m just taking it day by day, to be fair. It’s come along really well, but just taking it day by day,” he said on The Rest Is Football podcast last week.

The weekend’s FA Cup semi-final loss against Manchester City did also raise an injury concern over fellow full-back Zach Abbott. In just his second start for the club the teenager was forced off with a knock in the final 10 minutes.

Thhe extent of the injury and if it will rule him out for any games is still to be seen.

The only other injury concern for Nuno Espirito Santo is summer signing Eric da Silva Moreira. The 18-year-old has only played twice in the Premier League for Forest so far this season.

He picked up an injury while on international duty with Germany U19s. But was an unused substitute against Aston Villa earlier this month before again being left out of the squad for the last three games.

Aston Villa
Villa are the club to be currently the least hit by injuries, with only one concern in their squad.