Jacob Murphy adds to Newcastle’s woes with hamstring injury | OneFootball

Jacob Murphy added to Newcastle’s injury woes by picking up a hamstring issue in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Manchester City.

Murphy impressed during the first half of the League Cup clash and was the most effective outlet for Newcastle whose gameplan involved sitting back and attacking with pace on the counter.

Anthony Gordon had a few moments of joy on the left but Murphy set up the Magpies’ best chance with a run down the right wing. He played in a curling pass to the feet of Yoane Wissa only to watch the striker lift his effort over the crossbar with less than five minutes of the game played.

Manchester City went on to win the game 2-0 thanks to goals from Antoine Semenyo and Raya Cherki and the deficit could have been more if Semenyo hadn’t had a second goal ruled out through a controversial VAR intervention.

Newcastle limited Man City’s output in front of goal with Erling Haaland having just seven shots in the opening 45 minutes and Murphy was the most creative player for the hosts with repeated crosses and passes into the penalty area.

However, he went to ground on the stroke of half-time and limped around the pitch clutching his hamstring before manager Eddie Howe replaced him with Harvey Barnes.

Murphy’s substitution could be a precautionary measure by the club who are seeing their injury list mount after Tino Livramento was confirmed to miss around two months with a hamstring problem of his own earlier on Tuesday.

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Murphy was replaced by Harvey Barnes before half-time during the match at St. James' Park (REUTERS)

Fabian Schar, Dan Burn, Emil Krafth and Jamaal Lascelles were also sidelined for the Carabao Cup clash with William Osula and Anthony Elanga nursing knocks as well.

The growing list of absentees comes at a tricky time for manager Eddie Howe and Newcastle who face Aston Villa home and away, Manchester City away twice, Paris Saint-Germain away, Liverpool away, Brentford at home, Tottenham Hotspur away and a potential Champions League knockout play-off over the next six weeks.