Body blow: Newcastle now dealt late injury twist pre-Everton, it'll leave fans fuming - opinion

Newcastle have been dealt a frustrating late injury twist over central defender Dan Burn…

Magpies boss Eddie Howe has revealed that the January signing from Brighton may miss out against Everton on Tuesday night, with a knock potentially keeping him from making his debut for the club.

Howe told The Chronicle: “As for the other guys, I can’t wait to see them, again transition them into the team. I think they are experienced Premier League players.

“The only thing is Dan has a slight toe problem that has been aggravating him the last few days. Which hopefully is nothing too serious, small thing that can sometimes be a big thing.”

This late twist will surely leave fans fuming as it suggests that Burn is not fit enough to start the match, with the defender potentially being expected to make his Magpies debut.

There is no shying away from how poor Newcastle have been defensively this season and he was the only centre-back brought in during January. This means that there could be a weight of expectation on his broad shoulders to come in and solve their issues in defence.

Only Norwich (45) have conceded more goals in the Premier League than the Magpies (43) and this highlights how disappointing they have been at the back this term. They have been far from good enough at defending their own goal and the current crop of players have shown little sign of major improvement, which is why the signing of Burn was crucial in January.

The English centre-back averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.96 in the Premier League this season. This shows that he is able to consistently deliver quality performances at this level, with Brighton conceding just 23 goals in 22 top-flight matches – 20 goals fewer than Newcastle have let in.

Burn could