Newcastle United will be without Fabian Schar for their London double-header against Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.
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Schar picked up his fifth Premier League yellow card of the campaign in the 2-0 win at Manchester United on Monday night. As per league rules, any player cautioned five times in their team’s opening 19 matches is handed an automatic one-match suspension.
The frustration for Newcastle and Schar is the defender was just 10 minutes away from avoiding such scenario. The visit to Spurs on Saturday sees the disciplinary threshold increase to 10 yellow cards in 32 games.
Schar serves his second ban of the campaign having missed three games for an apparent headbutt on Southampton forward Ben Brereton Diaz on the opening day. Dan Burn and Joelinton are the other two players to serve bans this term.
In addition, the former Switzerland international will miss the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal three days later. As per EFL rules, any player booked twice in the competition before the semi-final stage is handed a one-match competition ban.
Reacting to Schar’s absence, United boss Eddie Howe told NewcastleWorld: "Yeah, the coincidence is he's going to miss two games, of course, because of the Carabao Cup game as well. So it's a big blow for us and for him that we're going to have to change our back line because it's been so stable for us in the middle of the pitch.
“Fab and Dan have built up a really good partnership, but that will give an opportunity to someone else and hopefully the team won't be adversely affected."
Lloyd Kelly is in line to take Schar’s place while Sven Botman could return to the matchday for the first time since his ACL injury in March.