Newcastle United’s players are their route to London for their Carabao Cup final versus Liverpool.
Eddie Howe’s team will try to end a nearly 70-year drought for a major trophy when they meet Liverpool at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Arne Slot’s team, which has four points from two Premier League matches this season, stands in the way of making history in the capital.
Newcastle United will be without only four players for Sunday’s match, three of whom are first-team regulars under Howe. Sven Botman and Lewis Hall will both be missing due to injury, while Anthony Gordon will serve the second match of his three-game suspension this weekend.
Jamaal Lascelles, the club’s captain, will also miss Wembley as he recovers from an ACL injury. Lascelles has not played for the Magpies since the end of March 2024.
While none of these players will play at Wembley, three of them have been filmed traveling to London with the team. Botman, Gordon, and Lascelles were seen boarding a plane with their teammates, according to a video released on the club’s social media.
While Lascelles has been a long-term injury issue, the Magpies lost Gordon, Hall, and Botman within days of each other as their preparations for Sunday’s final were hampered by an FA Cup defeat to Brighton. The victory over West Ham on Monday night, however, has improved emotions ahead of their match against Liverpool.
Eddie Howe discusses Newcastle United’s injury news
Speaking to the media on Friday, Howe expressed hope that his team will be able to overcome the disappointment of missing Hall, Botman, and Gordon for the final, as well as trust in the group of players at his disposal to impress at Wembley: “Yeah, I think you have to, I think you have to come together stronger, so in the week that we had that certainly didn’t go as planned when we had players, and losing big players and important players is never easy, but you have to regroup and then you have to come back stronger, and you have to come back stronger in a more unified manner.
“That’s always the key aspect, it’s how you respond to it, and we try to double down on our core strengths, that doesn’t change depending on who’s available, and I think the spirit has been really good, which is why West Ham was so important, and it wasn’t lost on any of us after the game, that increased our feeling, unity, and belief internally; we needed that win.
“Training has been good this week, the preparation has been very good, I’ve been happy with how everything is looking to this point, we’re still two days left to go, so yeah, everything’s positive now.”
Liverpool, meanwhile, will be without Trent Alexander-Arnold on Sunday after he was injured against PSG on Tuesday night. Despite having left Anfield abruptly in midweek, Ibrahima Konate is expected to play.
