Sven Botman will be absent when Newcastle meet Birmingham in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday.

The start of 2025 has seen the centre-half return to fitness following a lengthy absence with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Botman was a key cog in the Magpies’ Carabao Cup semi-final victory on Wednesday, coming in to replace injured midfielder Joelinton as part of a back three, and although he was withdrawn in the 80th minute due to a knock, Eddie Howe does not believe the injury is too serious. The defender won't, however, be risked at St Andrew's.

The Newcastle boss said: “I don’t think he’ll be available for this weekend, he’s taken a knock to his knee. It’s the opposite knee to the ACL injury.

“I don’t believe it’s a serious injury but it’ll be enough to keep him out for the Birmingham game. Then we’ll assess him during the week, next week, before we lead into our next league game.”

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After sealing a dominant 4-0 aggregate victory over Arsenal, Newcastle discovered their opponents for the Carabao Cup final on Thursday night as Liverpool beat Tottenham to set up a Wembley showdown.

The competition’s showpiece is set to take place on March 16, but Howe insisted that his team need to put that game “to bed” and focus on their upcoming fixtures.

“Great game lined up. I think Liverpool did what they usually do at Anfield last night, a really good performance from them,” Howe said.

“Whoever we were going to face, it was going to be a real challenge in the final.

“I think the Liverpool game is a mouth-watering tie. We’ll really look forward to it but we have to put it to bed for the time being.

“We have to focus on what’s immediately ahead of us right now. That’s our biggest challenge mentally to focus on the here and now and that’s Birmingham.”

Saturday’s teatime FA Cup clash with Birmingham is Newcastle’s third game in eight days, and February poses further challenges with three tough Premier League contests lined up.

The Magpies are scheduled to meet Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool, and Howe hinted that the Birmingham game could present opportunities for other players to get minutes.

“I think mentally, physically it’ll be a difficult ask for the same players to go again and give the same energy they did to the game on Wednesday,” Howe said.

“As I’ve said many times, we don’t have a huge squad in terms of depth, especially with a couple of the injuries we’ve picked up with Sven missing and Joelinton out, but we’ll try and pick a team that’s strong enough to win and give other opportunities to other players.

“But they need to take their opportunity, because with the strength that we have in terms of fighting for our starting XI, any chance anyone gets they have to take.”

League One leaders Birmingham are currently four points clear at the summit and are enjoying an 18-game unbeaten run in all competitions, something Howe is cautious about.

He said: “It makes them a very dangerous team because they’ve got that rhythm and momentum of winning and winning consistently.

“The level doesn’t come into play, this will be a team who are very well-coached by Chris (Davies).

“They’re playing like a top-level team. I think that adds to the challenge for us, we can’t underestimate them in any way.”