Alan Shearer is wrestling with an injury crisis in key positions as he prepares his relegation-threatened Newcastle United side for Sunday's trip to Liverpool.
Scans have confirmed that José Enrique, Newcastle's sole specialist left-back, will definitely miss the visit to Anfield and could be out for the rest of the season. There are also problems in attack – where Obafemi Martins' groin trouble and Mark Viduka's achilles tendon problems dictate those two strikers have to be "managed" in training and remain liable to break down – and on the right wing, where Jonás Gutiérrez is struggling to be fit for Sunday.
Enrique's absence may tempt Shearer to revisit the three-man backline which characterised the first three games of his tenure. Alternatively, Damien Duff could fill in as an emergency left-back.
If Gutiérrez is ruled out, Joey Barton – although not a winger – could be deployed on the right. After returning to full training this week Barton looks poised to make his first start for Newcastle since fracturing a foot at his former club Manchester City in January. Shearer's instinct is to name Barton in his team but the manager will be governed by advice from the club's medical staff should they feel Barton would be better off beginning on the bench.
If the midfielder can expect a mixed reception on returning to his native Merseyside, his fellow Liverpudlian Kevin Nolan represents another cause of concern for Shearer. Nolan, a £4m signing from Bolton Wanderers in January, has so far failed to reprise his old Reebok Stadium form on Tyneside and was not even given a place on the bench for the 0–0 draw at home to Portsmouth on Monday night.
Shearer, who similarly overlooked another Joe Kinnear signing, Ryan Taylor, yesterday admitted, "Kevin Nolan wasn't injured", before refusing to write off the midfielder's season. Stressing that Nolan and Taylor could come into contention at Anfield, the former England captain said: "We've got to get Kevin back in the positions he took up at Bolton. We've got to get him on the end of things in the box. We've got to get him driving in there and being a threat from set-pieces again. I'm looking for great performances from people between now and the end of the season."
While the manager – whose side are three points from safety but have claimed just two points and a solitary goal during his four-game reign – debates whether to drop the Argentina defender Fabricio Coloccini following some alarming mistakes against Portsmouth, Sébastien Bassong will definitely feature in Newcastle's defence on Sunday.
Signed from Metz as defensive cover by the club's former director of football Dennis Wise last summer, the 22-year-old centre-half is expected to win Newcastle's player of the season award this summer. Moreover, after being watched repeatedly by, among others, Arsenal, Bassong remains tipped for a transfer to a leading club for next season but has, diplomatically, placed all such thoughts on hold.
"I'm not thinking about my future," said the defender, who has another year remaining on his current deal but has seen Newcastle stall on plans to offer him an extension. "The most important thing at the moment is staying up. We'll think about my future at the end of the season when, hopefully, we'll have survived."
Shearer trusts his senior players will perform better than their reserve counterparts managed against Liverpool this week. The second-stringers were thrashed 5-1 at Warrington by Rafael Benítez's B stream on Wednesday. Back in December, of course, Newcastle also lost 5-1 to Liverpool in the Premier League at St James' Park.
