Gayle injury is a bitter blow for Newcastle United

Dwight Gayle made a return from injury during the Aston Villa victory on Monday night but the return was short lived when he was withdrawn 30 minutes in to the game. After the match, Rafa Benitez said it was too early to know whether it was a re-occurrence of the same hamstring injury but news this morning has confirmed the worst and it looks like Gayle could be out for the next month.

This is pretty devastating news, not just for Dwight Gayle, but for the club as a whole, given the next month sees us play Brighton, Huddersfield and Reading on the road in successive matches. I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago stating that these 3 games will define our season; win them and we are up, lose them and we have a real fight on our hands to remain in the top two. The fact that Dwight Gayle is missing now makes this task even harder and I am sure the other clubs will be delighted at the news.

However, there is absolutely no reason to panic. We have cover up front in the form of Aleksandar Mitrovic, Ayoze Perez and Daryl Murphy; 3 players who could probably walk in to any clubs’ starting eleven in this league. Mitrovic and Perez have had their critics this season but both have put in promising performances over the last few weeks when called upon and Murphy has always impressed when used as an impact substitute later on in games. When Mitrovic replaced Gayle on Monday night, the game changed for the better – the way we played seemed to change and we became more direct and certainly more threatening up front against a nervous Villa defence – that is in no way a knock against Gayle but you could tell something was up with him from the very beginning, something wasn’t right.

On the flip side, it really is now time for Mitrovic to step up. I have given him a lot of slack this season and whilst I “get” the cult like status he has, it very much has a limited shelf life. I think he has actually performed well recently though and whilst the goals might not have come, he has come close and I think his work rate in particular has been outstanding. He has deputised for Gayle over the last few weeks and he has the chance to be the starting striker over the next month, playing in some key games along the way. This next month could make or break his Newcastle United career.

Perez on the other hand has played in a number 10 role for most of this season rather than the lone man up front; a role he has played before and struggled in. However, when we play Gayle up front, we play a certain way and a few players have commented on this over the last couple of weeks – this change in system will take time to gel so the loss of Gayle shouldn’t hit the squad too hard. We also don’t solely rely on Gayle for goals – so far this season Ritchie has 12, Perez 8, Gouffran 7, Mitrovic 6, Diame 5, Shelvey 4 – you get the picture; Gayle’s goals are important but we are far from a one man side, we are capable of scoring from anywhere on the pitch.

Next up is Bristol City on Saturday – a game we should win givien the respective sides’ league placings. Bristol City sit just a place above the relegation zone but no game in this league is easy and we have been guilty of throwing away “easy win” games at home this season; the home defeat to Blackburn Rovers a prime example of that. A win will give us momentum going in to what could be the toughest game of the season, an away fixture at Brighton on Tuesday night.

Howay the lads!