Newcastle United sweating on the fitness of Dwight Gayle ahead of crunch Championship clashes
NEWCASTLE are sweating on Dwight Gayle’s fitness as they head into a trio of crunch clashes.
Top-scorer Gayle came off 33 minutes into Monday’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa with a recurrence of his niggling hamstring injury.
The striker, 26, had only returned from five weeks out in Toon’s previous game, a 2-2 draw at Norwich.
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And boss Rafa Benitez has already ruled him out of facing Bristol City at St James’ Park on Saturday.
Gayle is also likely to miss Tuesday’s top-of-the-table trip to Brighton and could even miss visits to promotion rivals Huddersfield and Reading early next month.
It would be a big blow for Toon with Gayle having hit 20 Championship goals so far.
Aleksandar Mitrovic would be the most likely candidate to step into his shoes but the Serb boasts only six strikes this season and has netted just once in 13 outings.
While Daryl Murphy, who would compete with Mitrovic in Gayle’s absence, has scored three goals this term.
It is a real headache for Benitez, whose team’s success has been heavily reliant on Gayle’s movement, pace and lethal finishing ability.
The Spaniard may have to rejig his side’s approach heading into that trio of away games, which could define Newcastle’s season.
Benitez is already reeling from the loss of Isaac Hayden to an ankle injury for four weeks.
Despite Gayle’s injury on Monday, a Yoan Gouffran strike and a Henri Lansbury own goal sent the Magpies back to the top of the table.
Another positive was the performance of keeper Karl Darlow, who made key saves from Jonathan Kodjia in the first half and from Icelander Birkir Bjarnason at 2-0.
It helped make up for his “Karlamity” mis-kick in last week’s draw at Norwich.
Darlow, 26, said: “I just needed to get back on track, so I’m happy with the saves.
“It’s nice to contribute to the team and, with the second one especially at 2-0, it might have changed things. It’s good for me but we were solid at the back again.
“It was one of those where I was looking forward to getting back out on the pitch and getting back to what I have been doing. It’s nice to have left that behind me now and to have kicked on.”