Newcastle Limp Out Of International Break: Tim Krul Out For Three Weeks

The 2011-12 edition of the Premier League saw Newcastle United relatively fortunate with regard to injuries to key members of the squad. In the yin and yang of sports, however, this season was always going to be a reaction to cancel out last year's injury fortune. Unfortunately for us, Newton's Third Law Of Motion does not influence Premier League injuries. Already without Ryan Taylor long-term and Danny Simpson for 3 more weeks the Newcastle back line has been further hit by confirmation that Tim Krul will miss several matches due to an elbow injury picked up while on international duty with the Dutch National Team. Add to that the hamstring injury that Fabricio Coloccini is struggling with that will likely rule him out v. Everton on Monday and the likelihood that Cheik TIote will likely be out yet again and you wouldn't blame Everton's attackers if they were licking their lips in anticipation of the upcoming clash at Goodison Park.

Pardew said: "We have lost three of our back five that started the season - that's a significant blow for us because we are not a Chelsea or a Manchester United, who can bring in international players to replace them.

"Having said that, I think our replacements are strong. We are not that much down on going there with those guys."

-via The Press Association

I would confess to being much more pessimistic of Rob Elliott was still the preferred backup to Tim, but on the evidence of squad selection to this point, it seems more likely that Steve Harper will get that nod while Mike Williamson will step in of Captain Colo is unable to go on Monday. This doesn't necessarily make me feel comforted, but somehow in defiance of all logic and his seemingly repeatedly being beaten easily by opposing strikers, his presence in the lineup last year resulted in a very large percentage of our clean sheets... so there's that. James Perch will be available for selection as well, so (owing to there's not too many other viable options), I'm going to go out on a limb here and say we see a back line of