Newcastle’s hopes of Champions League progression could rest in the hands of their third-choice goalkeeper Loris Karius at home against Milan after Eddie Howe admitted that Martin Dubravka’s fitness is “unclear”.
Howe turned coy when he was asked why Dubravka, Sean Longstaff and Anthony Gordon failed to train with the first team on Tuesday before a match his team must win in order to have a chance of reaching the competition’s knockout phase.
“You can read into it what you want,” the Newcastle manager said, but he did not deny that Dubravka is struggling with back and shoulder problems. With Nick Pope, Newcastle’s first-choice keeper already out with a complicated shoulder dislocation, Karius is on standby to make his first Champions League appearance since a disastrous display in the 2018 final for Liverpool against Real Madrid.
While it is believed there is an outside chance that Dubravka may yet pass a late fitness test, potential redemption beckons for Karius, whose career has flatlined since his glaring mistakes in that 3-1 defeat for Jürgen Klopp’s side in Kyiv.
Although the German, 30, was almost certainly playing against Real with concussion, he seemed to have a subsequent loss of nerve and made more errors while representing Besiktas in the Europa League during a subsequent loan spell from Liverpool.
Karius has made only one senior appearance for Newcastle, when he performed creditably as Howe’s side lost to Manchester United in last season’s League Cup final on a day when Pope was suspended and Dubravka cup-tied.
He is set to re-enter Howe’s planning at a moment when his injury-hit squad have conceded seven goals in the course of two successive Premier League defeats at Everton and Tottenham.
Newcastle, though, remain formidable at St James’ Park and know that, should Paris Saint-Germain fail to win at already qualified Dortmund, victory will secure them a place in the draw next week for the round of 16 in February.
“We’re very positive,” said Howe, whose side are level on points with Milan but have a superior goal difference. “We want to make it a magical Champions League night. We’ve got to come out with all guns blazing. It’s got all the hallmarks of being a very special night under the lights here.
“We’re desperate to stay in this competition. We worked so hard to get here. We want it to last as long as possible. Milan are very dangerous but we’re as hungry as you can be. We’re fiercely determined. Every fibre, every part of our being wants to stay in this competition.”
As seven-time Champions League winners and semi-finalists last season, Stefano Pioli’s side do not want to contemplate the ignominy of bowing out at this stage. Although the consolation prize of Europa League involvement remains a possibility, their inferior goal difference dictates that Newcastle need only a point to secure it.
Like Howe, Milan’s manager is grappling with an injury crisis that leaves Fikayo Tomori as his sole fit specialist centre-half and leaves his gifted winger Rafael Leão facing a fitness test on the hamstring injury which has kept him out for the past month.
If Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier – who has looked shattered recently – could do without Leão’s return no one is quite sure what impact Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s very recent surprise appointment as a senior Milan adviser might exert.
Although Pioli is not thought to be in imminent peril of dismissal the manner in which the former Sweden striker, one of Milan’s favourite sons, has been parachuted in by the club’s American owners has been interpreted as an undermining of the manager’s authority in some quarters.
Howe’s ambitions have been jolted by Sandro Tonali’s 10-month suspension for breaches of Italian betting regulations. The Italy midfielder joined Newcastle for £55m from Milan during the summer and, given that St James’ Park executives have explored the possibility of initiating legal action against the Serie A club, the boardroom atmosphere could prove frosty on Wednesday night.
“I didn’t know anything about Sandro’s problem,” said Pioli. “He was polite, respected and a sensible boy. I am very close to Tonali. Newcastle signed a great deal and what happened after no one could expect.”
Tonali has briefed Howe on the strengths and weaknesses of his former teammates. “We’ll try to utilise little bits of information Sandro has given us,” the Newcastle manager said. “But I always prefer to trust my own eyes.”
