‘Tight calf’… Eddie Howe confirms that 30-year-old Newcastle player is now suffering with injury

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Eddie Howe has confirmed that another Newcastle United player has picked up an injury prior to the win against Fulham on Saturday.

Newcastle have suffered a number of injuries this season and they will have hoped the worst was behind them with their fixture list not as packed in the second half of the season.

However, Howe has now confirmed to The Athletic that club captain Jamaal Lascelles was missing from the FA Cup fourth round tie due to a tight calf, but it doesn’t look too serious.

Newcastle face quick turnaround for Villa game

While they don’t have to worry about added fixtures anymore after exiting the Champions League and Carabao Cup last month, they face Aston Villa on Tuesday night before returning home to take on Luton on Saturday.

It looks likely that Lascelles will also miss that game if they are not wanting to risk further injury, though he won’t be a huge miss as both Fabian Schar and Sven Botman are available at the back.

Having said that, Howe still won’t want any more of his Newcastle players to sustain injuries with the bench already looking very thin with a serious lack of depth preventing him from making big in-game changes.

Against Fulham, Howe waited until the 75th minute to make his first substitution when the team were already 2-0 up while the other two changes came in the final few minutes.

After the game, Howe said: “There’s no interest that I know of. He’s just got a slightly tight calf. We don’t think it’s anything serious.”

Howe confirms there’s no interest in Newcastle captain

It’s been a very uneventful January window for Newcastle, though there has been significant interest in a number of their players who could potentially leave this month.

With his contract expiring in the summer, Lascelles is one of those linked with a move away as it is believed that Besiktas are keen on bringing him to Turkey on a free transfer.

However, Howe has now claimed that he isn’t aware of any interest in the 30-year-old Newcastle man and that the only reason he was missing against Fulham was because of his injury.

Newcastle will continue to negotiate for the former Nottingham Forest man as they hope to keep him tied down for next season for quality in depth at centre-back.