issue official Alexander Isak injury update after Arsenal concern

The Magpies beat Arsenal 2-0 in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal last night. Having also defeated Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur on the road in the same week, Howe’s squad are feeling the physical effects.

At half-time at the Emirates Stadium, Alexander Isak – who scored the opening goal – was feeling his hamstring, which forced him to withdraw on the hour-mark. Sven Botman, meanwhile, had a groin complaint but got through the full 90 minutes.

If you look back at my record I don’t think you’ll find another one [week] like it! I think when you look at the fixture list and you see what is ahead you think ‘that’s going to be a real challenge for us’ in real quick succession,” Howe said during his post-match press conference.

“The players definitely played fatigued today and we knew they would be from the Tottenham game, that was a big physical game so we knew coming here it was going to be a tough ask mentally and physically.

We also had a difficult half-time, there were a few players at half-time feeling different things so that was a tough 15 minutes because we knew the importance of the second half and the game sort of, we lost our strength in the game and you could see that in the second half.

“It was a case of just managing the game. Alex was just feeling his hamstring and Sven was feeling a groin. We had a couple of players struggling so we had to manage them.”

Isak’s goal against Arsenal marked his 50th his United since joining from Real Sociedad in a club-record £63million deal in August 2022. The Sweden international will be among the first-team players rested for the visit of Bromley to St James’ Park on Sunday but it is hoped he’ll be in contention to face Wolves three days layer.

Howe said: “He played very well in the first-half, he looked really good physically, his pace and movements were giving them [Arsenal] a problem. He looked free and I was delighted with how he performed, he took his goal really well.

“But then we knew in the second half we needed to manage him, he is so important, we can’t lose him or risk losing him. Hopefully he’s OK.”