Jaissle on Newcastle’s defeat to Leeds and several injury concerns

Matthias Jaissle revealed Newcastle have been hit by a series of injury setbacks, adding further disappointment to a difficult night for his side as they lost 4-1 to Leeds.

Nico Gonzalez was forced off after suffering a head injury, and Jaissle insists the club had no hesitation in prioritising the midfielder’s welfare despite his importance to the team.

“With Nico, as a manager and also we as a club, we have the responsibility,” Jaissle said.

“If he had that knock-out feeling, as you all saw, then we are responsible enough to take him off the pitch.

“Even though he looked fine then, there are also some rules, especially for that occasion.

“Independent of how important he is and how important it is to win a match, we are all human beings as well, and we take that seriously. Therefore we took the decision to take him off the pitch.”

There was also worrying news on Anthony Elanga, who missed the game completely.

“With Anthony Elanga, it’s obvious that he struggles with an injury,” Jaissle said. “We need to further investigate how serious it is. But at the moment it doesn’t look that good.”

Jacob Ramsey was another late absentee after feeling his thigh during the warm-up.

“He felt his thigh in the warm-up, so he was not able to play tonight,” Jaissle explained.

“That was the next challenge. That is tonight a little bit the story, I would say. Many things came together.”

Asked whether any of Newcastle’s injured players could return against Hull on Saturday, Jaissle admitted: “It doesn’t look good at the moment.”

The Newcastle boss was also critical of his side’s performance at Leeds, describing the defeat as a “big down” for his young squad but urged them to learn from it.

“We couldn’t bring the fundamentals in football on the pitch,” he said.

“Duels, the intensity of Leeds, we couldn’t match, and then you see that it’s going to be difficult to win a game in the Premier League.

“With the young squad we will have challenges, we will have ups and downs.

“Today it was a big down, a tough night with a heavy defeat, but that’s now exactly the way to learn out of it.

“That’s always the most important thing, that you show the right reaction, and we can do that already on Saturday.”