Hall suffered a knee injury during last week’s league meeting with Liverpool and was withdrawn from last weekend’s FA Cup defeat to Brighton after an initial series of scans revealed a problem.
The full-back was sent for a consultation with a specialist, and the initial diagnosis has not proved positive. While a full timetable for Hall’s anticipated recovery is yet to be disclosed, the defender will miss both Monday’s league game at West Ham and the Carabao Cup final a week on Sunday.
Hall will also miss out on what would have been an almost certain call-up to Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad for this month’s World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia at Wembley.
The 20-year-old will not be the only player missing out on the Carabao Cup game with Liverpool as Gordon is also now officially out of the final.
Newcastle officials had been considering launching an appeal against the straight red card the winger received when he pushed Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke in the face at the weekend.
However, after studying the incident from a number of different angles, senior Newcastle figures have decided not toa appeal against referee Anthony Taylor’s on-field decision.
As a result, Gordon will incur an automatic three-match suspension that will keep him out of the final as well as the league games with West Ham and Brentford that sandwich the Carabao Cup game.
Losing both players at the same time is a huge blow for Eddie Howe, who must now come up with a new plan for the final.
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Tino Livramento started at left-back at the weekend, with Kieran Trippier lining up on the right of the back four, and that is the defensive line-up that Howe is likely to stick with at Wembley.
However, that will mean an out-of-position Livramento being handed the task of trying to contain Liverpool’s key forward, Mo Salah. Hall did a pretty decent job of dealing with Salah at Anfield last week, although the Egyptian still claimed an assist as he set up Alexis Mac Allister’s second-half goal. Earlier in the season, Salah scored twice as Liverpool claimed a 2-2 draw at St James’ Park.
At the other end of the pitch, Howe could promote Harvey Barnes to the starting line-up in a like-for-like swap for Gordon. While Barnes started on the right-hand side against Brighton at the weekend, his more natural position in on the left wing. However, Barnes’ start in Sunday’s FA Cup tie was only his third in any competition since the start of November, and he has not scored since early December with his form having been extremely patchy for the majority of the campaign.
An alternative would be to move Joelinton into a wide-attacking role rather than playing the Brazilian in midfield, with Joe Willock or Lewis Miley filling the gap that would be left alongside Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes in the central-midfield unit.
Joelinton and Willock combined effectively down the left-hand side for much of the season that ended with Newcastle qualifying for the Champions League two years ago, and Howe may opt to reprise their relationship for the final.
