Newcastle United and Liverpool will both have players on the sidelines when they meet in the Premier League this week. The Magpies travel to Anfield to face the league leaders on Wednesday night, looking to secure another three points.

Eddie Howe’s team moved up to fifth place in the Premier League table with their 4-3 win over Nottingham Forest at the weekend. Newcastle will now hope to follow that victory at St James’ Park with a win against Liverpool, who themselves defeated reigning champions Manchester City on Sunday.

Howe will be without at least one player due to injury for Newcastle’s trip to Merseyside with Jamaal Lascelles still unavailable. The Magpies will hope, though, that Joelinton and Sven Botman are fit to return to the matchday squad.

Joelinton suffered a knee injury during Newcastle’s defeat to Fulham on February 1. Botman, meanwhile, has been sidelined since the win over Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg earlier this month with a knee issue.

“Sven’s improving and he’s improving quickly, so we’ll see whether he makes it. It’ll be close,” Howe told reporters on Tuesday.

“Again with Joe, it is similar to Sven, he is really improving and doing really well and pushing.

“He is another player who could be quite close. Joe is always important from a number of perspectives especially in defending set-pieces.

“He has those key aspects that we have missed when he’s not there. His physicality and strength there is an obvious presence missing in our midfield. Joey is a massive player for us.”

In Liverpool’s case, the Merseyside club are guaranteed to be without three players. Conor Bradley (hamstring), Joe Gomez (hamstring) and Tyler Morton (shoulder) are all unavailable for the clash against the Magpies.

There were also doubts that Alexis Mac Allister could miss the clash against Newcastle for Liverpool. The midfielder suffered a head injury during the win over Man City on Sunday, but Reds head coach Arne Slot explained that he expects Mac Allister to be involved in Wednesday night’s fixture.

“Yeah, I think he [Mac Allister] will be okay. He will train with us today,” said Slot during his Tuesday pre-match press conference.

“Conor [Bradley] doesn’t. He is out for a few weeks. I cannot detail exactly how many but it is clear he went off with a muscle injury and it is going to take a while before he is back.