Ally McCoist has suggested that Martin Dubravka could excel for Newcastle United after it was revealed that Nick Pope will be unavailable for at least four months.
Newcastle have picked up yet another key injury and will now have to turn to backup goalkeeper Dubravka who lost his place in the starting 11 last summer.
On talkSPORT, McCoist likened the situation to when Sven Botman first picked up his injury and believes Dubravka could react in the same way Jamaal Lascelles did who has been brilliant since stepping in.
Dubravka has the opportunity to prove himself
Dubravka arrived at Newcastle in 2018 for a fee of just £4m after a very impressive loan spell and kept his spot in the team for four years until the signing of Pope from Burnley.
The Slovakian was not overly impressed at being moved to the bench by Eddie Howe and last summer had pushed through a loan move to Man United, though he only made two appearances and returned in January.
However, with Pope set to be sidelined for the next four or five months after dislocating his shoulder against Man United, Dubravka has the opportunity to prove that he can still be a top keeper for Newcastle or any other Premier League club.
We saw something similar when Botman was ruled out and Lascelles was forced to step up after a lengthy period of time out of the team.
The captain has rarely put a foot wrong in the last few weeks and Howe will be asking for a similar reaction from his backup shot-stopper.
On talkSPORT, Jeff Stelling said: “It was interesting with Dubravka because he was comparing him with Jamaal Lascelles who had been written off, he was yesterday’s man and yet he’s been brilliant.”
McCoist then responded: “He’s been excellent. Lascelles has come in, obviously, one or two injuries, Botman and people like that have been injured.
“Newcastle, it’s well documented the injuries they have, but Lascelles has come in and done a good job and it wouldn’t surprise me if Dubravka does the exact same.”
Dubravka needs to have a big month for Newcastle
For now, Howe has complete faith in Dubravka to fill the shoes of Pope for Newcastle’s upcoming Premier League and Champions League games which will be crucial to the rest of their season.
However, should the experienced goalkeeper struggle or make any costly mistakes that prove he’s not up to the standard that Howe demands, the boss could look to replace him in the January window.
There have already been rumours linking Newcastle to David de Gea who is currently a free agent after leaving Man United in the summer, but the club are unlikely to make any drastic moves just yet.
All eyes will be on Dubravka in the next few weeks to see if he can be yet another Eddie Howe success story and turn his form around for Newcastle.
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