Big blow: NUFC "waiting" on major injury setback tonight that'll leave Howe fuming - opinion

Newcastle United have been dealt a major injury setback over central midfielder Jonjo Shelvey…

Eddie Howe has revealed that the Englishman is a major doubt to feature against Everton at Goodison Park in the Premier League tonight.

He was left out of the matchday squad last weekend as the Magpies lost 1-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, with Kai Havertz scoring the only goal of the game, and now looks set to miss out again.

The club quote Howe as saying: “With Jonjo Shelvey, we’re waiting to see. He hasn’t trained yet so he’s a bigger concern.”

Howe will surely be fuming with the midfielder’s situation as losing him is a big blow to the side. He has been in fine form this season and his absence leaves a noticeable hole in the middle of the park.

Sean Longstaff came in alongside Bruno Guimaraes against Chelsea and his performance illustrated why Shelvey being out harms Newcastle’s chances. As per SofaScore, he completed 68% of his passes, one of his four long pass attempts, and did not complete a single key pass.

He also failed to make a single clearance, block or interception and allowed himself to be dribbled past twice. This was along with losing 50% of his duels and completing just one tackle – recording a SofaScore rating of 6.4.

This shows that he struggled on and off the ball throughout the match. Shelvey, meanwhile, has been a solid performer since Howe’s arrival at the club and has averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.91 across the Premier League campaign so far.

The ex-Liverpool man has completed 4.9 long passes per game at a success rate of 61% and this shows that he is significantly better than Longstaff in this regard. His ability to spread the play with his range of passing is crucial to Newcastle’s build-up play