View: Newcastle reveal offers Bilic huge boost as Baggies search for his successor
Newcastle manager Steve Bruce has revealed that he could be without a number of first-team players for this weekend’s game against West Brom.
Speaking ahead of the match at St. James’ Park, as reported by the BBC, Bruce revealed the true extent of the COVID-19 outbreak that his squad has suffered. When asked about the number of positive tests in the group he said there were “four one day, and then another five”.
Bruce went on to add: “You’ll have to wait until tomorrow [to find out who is missing], we have far more than what we thought last Monday, two or three people have come back into the squad who had it and it’s left them. We didn’t think they would come back so quickly.”
Earlier this week there was some doubt that the game would even go ahead, with Newcastle only returning to training on Tuesday.
Bruce refused to reveal who or how many players could be missing this weekend, but it is unlikely that the Magpies will be at full strength.
While you would never wish injury or illness on an opposition player, the possibility of a weakened Newcastle squad would come as a huge boost to Slaven Bilic in his time of need.
Steve Madeley of The Athletic reported that it could be a make-or-break game for Croatian, while Sami Mkobel of the Daily Mail claims that the Baggies are already identifying potential replacements, should they need to sack the manager this weekend.
Bilic must seize this opportunity and ensure his Baggies side come away with all three points.
Not only could the home side be without a number of key players, but they may have also lost some of their match sharpness, having not played since their win over Crystal Palace two weeks ago.
The Baggies looked short of any kind of confidence against Crystal Palace after Matheus Pereira’s red card but the Premier League strugglers must put that behind them and find some form without him on Saturday.
With tough fixtures on the horizon, this could be Billic’s best and only shot at keeping his job. If the Baggies can come away with a win – which would only leave them four points behind 15th-placed Arsenal – things start to look just a little bit different.
In other West Brom news, one Baggies midfielder has been ruled out of clash v Newcastle