The Newcastle United injury crisis heading into Saturday’s home match against Hull City is severe enough on its own. What makes it genuinely alarming is that the visitors arrive at St James’ Park in fourth place, unbeaten in four Premier League matches, and absolutely reeking of confidence after one of the more startling early-season runs in recent memory.
Hull beat Manchester United, beat Frank Lampard’s Coventry City, drew with Aston Villa, and then drew 2-2 with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, according to The Athletic. Four games, four points shared or taken from clubs with considerably larger wage bills and squads. Nobody voted Hull City into the top four. They just went and put themselves there.
What Newcastle United’s injury crisis means against Hull City
The absentees tell a brutal story. Dan Burn, Joelinton, Will Osula and Anthony Elanga are all unavailable. Add Nico Gonzalez, Amar Dedic and Jacob Ramsey to that list and Newcastle United are working with a skeleton squad heading into a fixture they absolutely cannot afford to lose at home.
The midfield situation is the most exposed area. After Leeds drove through Lewis Miley and Sean Steur without breaking sweat in the 4-1 defeat at Elland Road, the logical solution is Aladji Bamba, the £35m defensive midfielder who has been restricted to bit parts since arriving. But Matthias Jaissle has not trusted him yet. Bamba did not replace Gonzalez when the Spaniard went off after just 18 minutes at Leeds. An 18-year-old who plays with a forward’s instinct got that job instead, with Bamba eventually coming on only for the final minutes when the game was long gone.
That call raised questions. It will raise more if Bamba is again overlooked with the midfield bridge already down to two men rather than three. Hull will target that gap the same way Leeds did, and possibly with more precision.
Hull City’s Tigers have earned the right to smell blood
The promotion-and-straight-back-down pattern has been brutal in recent seasons. The Athletic reports that in 2023-24 and 2024-25, all three promoted clubs were relegated at the end of each campaign: the first time in the league’s history that had happened in consecutive years. Hull were not supposed to break that mould. They only scraped into the play-offs via sixth place on the final day, then beat Middlesbrough at Wembley. When the Premier League fixture list was released, the bookmakers had them down as firm favourites to go straight back down.
Right now, Hull are above Manchester United in the table. For context, ESPN has Manchester United sitting fifth with five points from five matches, one win, two draws and two losses. The club Hull actually beat is sitting below them. That is where we are in September 2026.
The Leicester City comparisons are already doing the rounds. Steady on. Leicester won the title with a 10-point cushion over Arsenal after 38 matches, possessing Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante, Jamie Vardy, Kasper Schmeichel and Danny Drinkwater at his peak. Hull have four matches under their belts. The target for the Tigers, realistic and honest, remains survival, and doing what Leeds managed last term or what Sunderland achieved against the odds would count as a genuine success. But they are playing with a fearlessness that feeds on itself, and chairman Acun Ilicali wears his belief loudly. It spreads through the dressing room and onto the pitch.
That is the spirit Newcastle showed absolutely none of at Elland Road. They were passive, timid and physically outmuscled. Hull will have watched that tape. They know what Oli McBurnie can do as a physical centre-forward, and after watching Dominic Calvert-Lewin bully Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman, the Tigers will back their man to cause the same problems.
Jaissle has spoken about his own squad possessing the same togetherness and belief that Hull carry onto the pitch. Saturday is the moment to actually show it, not just describe it. Tino Livramento can push in at right-back, Fabian Schar can provide experience alongside the two central defenders. Jacob Murphy needs dropping. And Bamba has to get his proper chance in the middle, because without him, the midfield looks alarmingly open to a side that has already torn up every expectation placed on it this season.
A three-week international break follows immediately after this match. Heading into that with back-to-back defeats and a home record of zero wins would leave a very sour taste on Tyneside, and Hull City have every reason to push for exactly that.