Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe has offered an update on Dutch defender Sven Botman and confirmed that the centre-back will be absent at Birmingham this weekend.

The clash at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park will see Sweden defender Emil Krafth make a return to the scene while Nick Pope, Sean Longstaff and Joe Willock could all get an opportunity from the start in the televised teatime clash. Botman came off against Arsenal in the second leg of the semi-final of the Carabao Cup at St James' Park, but will continue to be assessed.

The big positive for Botman is that the injury is not the knee that was operated on last year. Botman's season ended after the FA Cup quarter-final defeat against Man City and he only returned over the festive period this term.

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Howe said: "Sven is not available for this weekend. He has taken a knock to his knee [the opposite one to his ACL injury]. We don’t believe it is serious but enough to keep him out of the Birmingham game."

Botman scored 10/10 in the Chronicle Live match ratings and put in his best performance yet since returning from a long-term knee problem. Howe stated that the display against the Gunners was right up there, with his best performance ever as the boss.

And confirming the fact that he will make changes, Howe said: "We will have to make changes, it would be a difficult ask for those players to go again, physically and mentally.

"We don’t have a huge squad in terms of depth, we will give opportunities to other players, but they will have to take their chance. We will use the game to share the load. The guys that come in need to grab that opportunity.

"We respect them, Chris Davies has done a brilliant job. Every time you go to Birmingham, you realise the size of the club. It is a huge football club with a brilliant supporter base. It is a really good ground to play at. We see this as a big challenge, and we need to rise to the challenge. They are a very aggressive, a high pressing team, we cannot underestimate them in any way."

The other big call Howe has to make this weekend will be whether to start Callum Wilson or not. The No.9 made his return from a a hamstring issue on Wednesday.

Howe said: "He seems fine. Callum is very confident about his body at this moment in time. He's gone through several things differently this time around in his recovery. He's trained very hard for this. He feels robust, strong and ready to start games."