Former Newcastle United goalkeeper believes the Magpies are in real trouble when they are without two key players.

Eddie Howe's side were beaten 2-0 by Bournemouth on Saturday, on what was a really rotten night for the club. The injuries completely caught up with them, with Newcastle unable to lay a glove on the relegation-threatened Cherries.

And to make matters worse, Miguel Almiron became the latest Toon player to suffer an injury.

The big concern for Newcastle going into the game was the fitness of Callum Wilson. He was a doubt going into it, and was unable to feature against his former employers. That meant Howe did not have a recognised striker, with Alexander Isak also out injured.

That led to Anthony Gordon leading the line, which he had done so brilliantly in the Carabao Cup win over Manchester United. He also got the winner against Arsenal from that position.

But Gordon struggled to have an impact against the Cherries, which led to Joelinton playing through the middle. Combine that with the fact Matt Ritchie was playing and it felt like we had gone back in time to watch Steve Bruce's Newcastle.

By the time the full time whistle sounded, Newcastle had a teenager playing up top, with 18-year-old Ben Parkinson making his competitive debut for the club. Sadly, he barely got a kick.

Newcastle's injuries caught up to them, particularly up front. And that is a big concern for Shaka Hislop.

MORE NEWCASTLE STORIES

Shaka Hislop not impressed with Gordon or Joelinton up front for Newcastle Hislop spoke about Newcastle's striker issues on the latest episode of the ESPN FC podcast.

"I'm concerned in that when Newcastle's strikers go down, they don't have anyone to call on," he said.

"The top four push nearly went off the rails last season when Isak went down. This time you have no Isak, no Callum Wilson.

"You've got Gordon and Joelinton trying to play as your starting centre-forward. That is not going to work at this level."

Joelinton is a different story. We watched him play up front for two years and it did not work. Even with Eddie Howe in charge, that is not going to change.

But what can Newcastle do? They only had so much money they could spend in the summer. They weren't able to bring in a third striker. And even if they did, it would be difficult to tempt someone in with the lure of being third choice behind Isak and Wilson.

Injuries are unavoidable, and they are piling up for Newcastle. But that comes with the territory of competing on so many fronts.

This international break has came at a good time, and it could end with Alexander Isak returning from his groin injury. He is due to return when Newcastle face Chelsea on November 25th.