AC Milan’s game against Newcastle United on Wednesday night looks like being the battle of two wounded beasts in terms of form and injuries.
Calciomercato.com recall the words of Newcastle boss Eddie Howe after their 4-1 defeat against Spurs yesterday, which followed a 3-0 loss at Everton: “We hoped we had the team to deal with it, but with the injuries we had, I think we had a worse situation than any other team.”
Milan are missing Simon Kjaer with only Fikayo Tomori remaining among the central defenders available. Pierre Kalulu, Malick Thiaw and Marco Pellegrino are out, as are Mattia Caldara, Marco Sportiello and Noah Okafor for a total of seven unavailable due to injury. Then there are the likes of Ismael Bennacer and Jan-Carlo Simic, who are fit but not in the UEFA squad list.
Newcastle, meanwhile, are battling 10 issues. Nick Pope will have to have shoulder surgery and will be out for months, Sven Botman hurt his knee, left-backs Matt Targett and Dan Burn are out due to thigh and lower back problems respectively.
Sandro Tonali’s unavailability is due to suspension, while in the middle of the pitch Joe Willock is struggling with calf problems. Jacob Murphy is out due to a shoulder issue, Elliot Anderson due to his back, Ashley Barnes due to his ankle and lastly Javier Manquillo is not on the UEFA squad list.
That is a total of 16 players between the two teams unavailable due to injury, or 19 if including those players who are either suspended or not in the squad list.
