Rob Elliot’s season-ending injury plunges Newcastle into deeper crisis

At 8pm on Tuesday night Newcastle United's hopes of Premier League survival took a potentially fatal blow.

As Miroslav Stoch's firmly struck right-footer hit the net the first thoughts of the 30,000 in the Aviva Stadium were to a clean sheet gone and then, as goalkeeper Rob Elliot stayed down in some distress, their thoughts turned to the loss of the Republic of Ireland's only starting Premier League goalkeeper. However, over the hushed concern, the howls of anguish emanating from the North East of England could almost be heard in Dublin. With a serious knee ligament injury expected to be confirmed Wednesday, Elliot's season is almost certainly over and he will join Tim Krul in the treatment room. The first-choice goalkeeper also suffered a knee ligament injury on Holland duty back in October and the loss of two international keepers is a massive blow for a team in the midst of a desperate battle for survival. New Magpies manager Rafa Benitez will now pitch in either Karl Darlow (25) or Fred Woodman (19) for Saturday's relegation six-pointer at Norwich. Darlow, who has played over 100 games for Nottingham Forest, is most likely to be entrusted with guarding the task of guarding Newcastle's over-exposed goal for the final eight game so of the season. The impact of the injury on Newcastle's season was not lost on Martin O'Neill, who was all but certainly going to select the 29-year-old Elliot for Euro 2016.

“Naturally it is a big blow to him, a blow to us and a blow to his club," said the Republic of Ireland manager. “It is really cruel at this time that he’s gone and done it. “He’s been waiting some time now for that run of games at club level, and he got them and I have to say he was doing very, very well indeed. “He came here, he knew he was always going to have either Friday night or tonight playing in the game, it was always going to be that way. “He was looking forward to the match, and it is really serious.”

With arguably their most in-form player - alongside Georginio Wijnaldum - of the season ruled out for the relegation dogfight, Newcastle fans were distraught - both for Elliot and their own hopes of survival. https://twitter.com/NUFC/status/714929108904513538 https://twitter.com/lewisbettts/status/715087675682897920 https://twitter.com/stevescullion/status/715083823445360640 https://twitter.com/Johnny_Mole/status/715081702532636672 https://twitter.com/davidhorsefield/status/715076448713891840 https://twitter.com/TheToonNetwork/status/714937864556044288