Lamine Yamal will play no part for Barcelona in their huge Champions League game against Newcastle United on Thursday night.
Indeed, Newcastle United vs Barcelona at St James’ Park is perhaps the standout Champions League game during the first week of action.
Almost 28 years on from the day that Tino Asprilla scored a hat-trick for Newcastle against Barcelona in 1997, the Catalan giants return to Tyneside.
This will be only the fifth clash between the two clubs. Newcastle have lost all three of their meetings with the Spanish champions since.
Hansi Flick’s side look like slight favourites to win on Thursday too but will be without the services of their teenage sensation Yamal.
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Lamine Yamal injured for Barcelona vs Newcastle United
Earlier this week, Barcelona confirmed that Yamal would not be part of the squad who travelled to England.
The 18-year-old also missed their 6-0 win over Valencia in the build-up to the Newcastle game and is expected to miss their La Liga clash against Getafe on Sunday.
Yamal has suffered a groin injury and, prior to the Newcastle game, Flick said: “We all know that Lamine is not playing against Newcastle, maybe not on Sunday.
“But at the end, we have a strong team and in his position, we have Marcus Rashford. If someone up front cannot play, he can step up and play like he showed on Sunday against Valencia. That is how good he is. I hope that he can show in England the same performance he did on Sunday.”
Eddie Howe reacts to Lamine Yamal’s injury ahead of Newcastle United vs Barcelona
Clearly, there’s little doubt that Barca still have the attacking talent to hurt Newcastle on Thursday.
Robert Lewandowski, Marcus Rashford, Fermin Lopez and Raphinha are all brilliant players and can pose Eddie Howe’s side all manner of problems.
However, not having to deal with a player of Yamal’s generational quality does make Newcastle’s job slightly easier – even if only by a few percent.
Prior to the game, the Newcastle United manager was asked about Yamal’s injury.
Howe said: “They’ve got many good players, I think it’s difficult to pick one [standout].”
Some may argue that not being able to watch a player as good as Yamal on Tyneside is a blow, given no one knows if it will happen again.
However, Newcastle cannot focus on just one player potentially appearing or not. Barca are dripping with quality and Newcastle have to match them.
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