Newcastle United triple injury blow ahead of Hull City as Anthony Elanga fear grows

Lee Ryder and James Smailes Head of All Out Rugby League and Yorkshire sport at Reach plc

Matthias Jaissle has revealed that Newcastle United were dealt a treble blow ahead of their match against Leeds United and it's threatening to disrupt matters for Saturday when they welcome Hull City to St James' Park.

Problems began before kick-off on Monday night at Elland Road when Anthony Elanga was ruled out with a leg problem and now faces an MRI scan, while Jacob Ramsey felt a thigh issue during the warm-up, meaning that despite being named on the bench, he was unable to take to the pitch. To compound matters further, Nico Gonzalez looks set to miss the upcoming fixture against City after being withdrawn early in the game with concussion, in line with FA protocols.

None of the three players are anticipated to be fit enough to face the Tigers as Newcastle's injury troubles continue to mount, before the dark nights have even kicked in.

Regarding Elanga, Jaissle said: "The injury doesn't look good. We need to investigate how serious it is. Elanga is struggling with injury but at the moment it does not look that good."

Gonzalez departed the pitch after just 18 minutes, with Jaissle emphasising the importance of acting responsibly given the seriousness of a head injury. The player received medical attention in the opening minutes and, after attempting to continue, was eventually taken off, reports Chronicle Live.

Jaissle said: "With Nico, as a manager and we as a club, we have the responsibility if he has that knock out feeling as we all saw. We have to be responsible to take him off the pitch even though he looked fine then. But there are rules for that occasion.

"Independent of how important it is to win a match, we are all human beings, and we take that seriously to take him off the pitch."

When Gonzalez was substituted, Jaissle opted for teenage player Sean Steur over Ramsey, explaining his reasoning: "The simple way to explain that is he felt his thigh in the warm-up so he was not able to play tonight. That was the next challenge.

"Tonight the story was many things came together. It does not look good for the weekend at the moment."

Casting his mind back over the 4-1 loss, Jaissle commented: "That was a tough match, a tough evening. We said beforehand this season would be with many challenges and tonight we faced a big challenge.

"A tough night, we didn't wish to have that but we need to learn straight away and the good part is we play at home on Saturday and we need to show the right reaction straight away.

"We are all in the same boat, I don't want to blame anyone. In the Premier League you need to bring the fundamentals on to the pitch, the physicality. If the opponent is showing that, and if you can't match this physicality, then it's going to be difficult, and that's something we learned today.

"I don't want to search for excuses. We know with a young squad if something goes wrong you need to find the right reaction on the pitch and we were not able to do that."

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