Botman needs minor surgery to address a small knee issue and faces eight weeks on the sidelines but Howe is hopeful the defender will play again before the end of the season.
That won’t be the case for Hall, who was this week confirmed to have broken a bone in his foot. And Newcastle will also be without Anthony Gordon for the next three games after the Magpies opted against appealing his red card in the FA Cup defeat to Brighton.
There was, however, some positive news for United, with Howe revealing Alexander Isak is fully fit. The striker sparked fears when he was replaced in the second half against Brighton.
Howe’s immediate focus is Monday night’s Premier League game at West Ham but the cup final follows just six days later, and the build-up has been riddled with setbacks.
“It’s not been the best of weeks, it’s been one of those weeks that challenges you in the job that I’m in,” said Howe.
“But I think you always need a level head, you need clear thinking and you need to put it always into perspective, we still have a really strong squad, we still have a really strong team.”
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Botman previously suffered an anterior cruciate knee ligament that sidelined the defender for 10 months but is now set for a small procedure on the opposite knee.
Howe said: “We’ve been trying to get him back to full fitness and he was very close before the Brighton game, then one of his last actions in training the day before he felt the same action in his knee.
“This week, he’s felt the same discomfort and now it looks like he needs to have an operation.
“This has come from a knock in one of his first games back. He didn’t feel it was a big issue but he needs a small operation to clear out some fluid and then he’ll be fine again.
“I think we should do (have him back before the end of this season). Whenever you have a really minor operation, there’s always a slight unknown. Eight weeks is sort of the timeline, so that should give him time to get games in before the end of the season.”
Hall has starred for Newcastle this season so his absence is another major blow.
Howe said: “I’m devastated for him actually because he had so much to look forward to at this moment of the season with the cup final – which will be a big thing for all the players at the moment.
“Also the international experience coming up, and he was just in really good form as well and playing very well, so yeah, that’s a big blow for him and for us.
“The most important thing now is his recovery and making sure he comes back as good as he can.”
Howe also explained Newcastle’s decision not to appeal Gordon’s red card.
He said: “We discussed it as a club, with the respected people that we need to discuss it with, lawyers etc. We just felt that there probably wasn’t sufficient grounds to do that.
“There was no intention from Anthony. Without going into too much detail on the actual event itself, I think the player [Van Hecke] sort of bends down, and it makes the push look worse.
“There’s no intention from him to hurt anybody. But you have to look at it and go ‘does this have a chance of being successful?’ – if there’s no chance of being successful, what’s the point of appealing, so Anthony understands.”
