Newcastle are facing the prospect of starting the season with just one senior striker, a report from The Daily Mail has claimed.
The Magpies begin their new Premier League campaign in just over two weeks time when they travel to The London Stadium to face West Ham, something they could be doing with a distinct lack of firepower.
According to the latest reports, attacking duo Joelinton and Yoshinori Muto are absent from the club’s training camp in York, with the club refusing to comment on the whereabouts of the pair, although sources close to Muto have apparently claimed that the club are trying to sell the Japanese forward.
Things have now worsened for the Magpies in the forward area, as Dwight Gayle is set for a scan on a knee injury picked up in a friendly win over Crewe that took place on Tuesday, with manager Steve Bruce said to be bracing himself for bad news.
That leaves Andy Carroll – who scored a spectacular goal in that victory over the League Two promotion winners – as the club’s only recognised available striker with the new season fast approaching.
Between them, that quartet scored just six Premier League goals last season – four of which came courtesy of Gayle after the season’s restart in June – and this latest news only serves to enhance the pressure on the Magpies to add some more firepower to their side ahead of the new campaign.
AS Roma striker Patrik Schick has been linked with Newcastle recently, but with a reported £22million valuation, even that may not be an easy deal for the Magpies to secure.
Consequentially those in charge at St James’, are going have to either put their money where their mouth, or brace themselves for a long, hard, and potentially damaging, start to the season.