Saints could be without 5 players when they host Newcastle United on Sunday, but the visitors could be even worse off as they could be missing 7 of their squad when they make the trip to St Mary's.

It is easy to criticise Saints for the defeat at Crystal Palace, but the reality was that they took the field missing aguably 4 of their 5 best players, that might loosen up this weekend slightly with the return of Romeo Lavia to the squad for the game against Newcastle on Sunday, but it seems like the Toon Army might be in a worse position than us.

They could have as many as 7 out through injury and suspension as Eddie Howe looks to try and gatecrash toe top 4 this season, something that is not beyond their scope given that they will more than likely boost their squad in January.

Definitely out for the game will be midfielder Joelinton, the Brazilian has started 11 of their Premier League games so far out of 13 and come off the bench in another, so he will be a big miss having picked up a yellow card in their last game meaning that with it being his 5th of the season he will be suspended for the trip to St Mary's.

Biggest miss though could be defender Fabian Schar, he like Joelinton has been a mainstay this season and has started 12 of the 13 games, he came off at the weekend with a hamstring problem and is a major doubt for the Magpies.

He joins another 5 players on the injury list, topping that is striker Alexander Isak, he has only played 3 games but has scored in 2 of them, he has been missing since mid September with a thigh injury and is unlikely to play before the World Cup break.

However most of them have played little part in this season so far, Matt Ritchie has spent most of the season either on the bench or out through injury, making just one appearance as a sub and he will likely be missing on Saturday.

Emil Krafth has also seen little action this season and will probably miss the rest of it with a Cruciate ligament rupture.

The other two casualties fall very much in the squad player category, left back Paul Dummett at 31 has been at Newcastle for 10 years but has struggled to make the team in the past few seasons and has not been helped in this one by injury.

Likewise goalkeeper Karl Darlow, the 32 year old has managed just 86 League games in 8 years at the club, a third of them coming in 20/21 season, but has barely featured since.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 09:16 - Nov 2 Ah - the weekly "the opposition might have loads of players out' message. Sadly it seems to make no difference these days. Saudi are hot favourites whoever is in their team. The "let's see if we can get through to half time only 1 down and attempt to play better in the second half" approach will end up with a 0-4 HT score soon.
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Kenm added 10:06 - Nov 2 I agree with SanMarco but on a different scale, Newcastle have several players who know how to score regularly, Saints on the other hand rarely find the net ?, this weekend if Villa let in less than Saints we will be in the drop zone !
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Kenm added 10:18 - Nov 2 The Saints board missed out big time !, 1 person who wanted a job at Saints was Eddie Howe, we missed OUT, thanks to the board keeping CLUELESS Ralph ??????
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kingolaf added 10:25 - Nov 2 Easy to criticise Saints - you’re right there. Ralph’s selections and tactics were abysmal on Saturday, again. I see you’re getting the excuses in for Sunday early, so you can go another week defending a really poor manager. Your stoic defence of him makes no sense whatsoever.
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redwight added 12:02 - Nov 2 Yes Kenm, I agree about EH. However, we were in a minority at the time, if this site is anything to go by. I remember howls of protest when it seemed a bit of a no-brainer to me.
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ItchenNorth added 13:11 - Nov 2 The same Eddie Howe that took Bournemouth down to the Championship 😆 Newcastle have bucket loads of money. It's a slightly easier gig if you can splash the cash the Toon have to put on transfers and wages.
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Boris1977 added 17:15 - Nov 2 I read that as Newcastle will only put 7 players out on Sunday. I'd still take a point.
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mbetts1976 added 20:04 - Nov 2 Can’t be that serious otherwise Newcastle would’ve had the game cancelled AGAIN!
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saint901 added 14:12 - Nov 3 So really only two regulars out but a clickbait headline? Equally claiming that we're down a player in Tino is false because he's never been in the squad this season.
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