And the Newcastle United boss is also hoping Sven Botman and Joelinton could be available for Sunday’s FA Cup fifth-round tie with Brighton.
Isak travelled to Liverpool with the rest of the Newcastle squad ahead of tonight’s game at Anfield, but was withdrawn from the starting line-up at around lunchtime after complaining of an issue with his groin.
Howe in confident the problem is not a serious one, and fully expects Isak to be available for next month’s Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
“It goes without saying how important he (Isak) is to us,” said the Newcastle boss. “I thought you could see that today. It was a late decision, around midday today. He just didn’t feel right with his groin, so we didn’t want to take the risk – we’ve got too many big games to come.
“I had a chat with him around lunchtime to see how he felt. We knew he was feeling something yesterday. We hoped that it would improve overnight, but it didn’t improve enough. We don’t envisage it being a big problem for him.”
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It remains to be seen whether Isak is able to feature in Saturday’s FA Cup tie, but Howe is hoping both Botman and Joelinton could be part of the squad that takes on Brighton.
Neither player was involved at Anfield this evening, but they are approaching the end of their recovery from their respective injury issues.
“I think they’ll be there or thereabouts for Sunday,” said Howe. “That would be a massive boost. It’s difficult to say because they haven’t trained with the team yet, but fingers crossed.”
This evening’s defeat means Newcastle have now failed to win on their last 29 league visits to Anfield. The Magpies failed to record a single shot on target, but Howe felt it was their defensive lapses that ultimately let them down.
“I thought we were okay tonight,” said the Newcastle boss. “I thought we played pretty well. I think what let us down was the two goals we conceded. We should never concede from those situations. We’ve got enough players back, we just don’t mark the men.
“We were just two yards off very good players in the box, and they punished us. I was really disappointed with that aspect of our play, but I thought in between the boxes, we were competitive. It wasn’t our best performance from an attacking sense, but I thought we had moments and chances.”
