Callum Wilson has revealed how devastated he was to learn the extent of the injury to Nick Pope who has been brilliant for Newcastle United in the last 18 months.
Pope dislocated his shoulder in the 1-0 victory against Manchester United on Saturday and will now require surgery, meaning he is to be out for a matter of months.
Speaking on The Footballer’s Football Podcast, Wilson acknowledged how big of a blow it is to lose Pope who he claimed had single-handedly kept Newcastle in games this season.
Pope is the reason Newcastle are still in the Champions League
As Wilson reminds us, Pope has single-handedly won points for Newcastle since he joined, but that is especially true for their games in the Champions League.
In the opening game in Group F against AC Milan, the shot-stopper had an amazing performance for Eddie Howe’s team, making eight saves and keeping a clean sheet to rescue a point for Newcastle.
Fast forward two months and the £10m signing is again pulling off world class saves, this time in the Parc des Princes, to keep Newcastle’s Champions League dreams alive.
Despite the injury to Pope, Wilson still has complete faith in Newcastle to compete against the best sides and for the goalkeeper’s replacement, likely to be Martin Dubravka, to ‘shine’.
On the podcast, Wilson said: “He’s massive. When you have such a positive result on the pitch the sad thing is that you have lost your number one goalkeeper.
“He is going to be a massive loss, no matter how long he is out, and he has single-handedly kept us in games this season.
“When a team goes one on one he will pull off a worldie save and we will go and end up winning. He’s that difference you need sometimes at the back but that’s not to say our other goalkeepers can’t step up now, it’s their opportunity to shine.
“That’s what football is all about. Sometimes one man’s loss is another man’s gain.”
Wilson believes Martin Dubravka can ‘step up’
Although he hasn’t been first choice since the arrival of Pope last summer, Wilson still believes Dubravka can do just as good a job for Newcastle, starting with the game against Everton.
In fact, Wilson claimed he has faith in any of Newcastle’s first-team goalkeepers with Loris Karius and Mark Gillespie now moving one step closer to being involved in a game.
Dubravka has already been given a message of support from Eddie Howe but there will be a lot of pressure on the £4m player to prove he’s still capable of being a starting keeper in the Premier League.
Should he impress at Goodison Park, the Slovakian has two tough games against Tottenham and AC Milan coming up in which he will have plenty of work to do to prove his worth.
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