Steve Bruce may name four goalkeepers in his Premier League squad after Newcastle United decided against doing any further business on transfer deadline day.
Bruce landed his number one target, Joe Willock, last month after the club broke 'all the rules' to pay Arsenal the transfer fee in instalments.
However, Newcastle failed to make any other senior additions despite Bruce being keen on bringing in an enforcer or an athletic centre-back on loan.
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Bruce was left frustrated after Newcastle failed to sign Leicester City midfielder Hamza Choudhury on a temporary basis on deadline day and the Magpies, ultimately, have failed to strengthen the group which finished the previous campaign so strongly.
The Newcastle head coach had been hopeful of making room for a new signing by naming three goalkeepers in his 25-man Premier League squad after originally 'toying with the idea' of naming four.
Bruce had contemplated including Martin Dubravka, Karl Darlow, Freddie Woodman and Mark Gillespie in his squad because Dubravka is out until October with a foot injury and Darlow was hospitalised with COVID earlier this summer.
Following a quiet end to the window, Bruce no longer has to leave one of his shot-stoppers out and that could mean that Dubravka, Darlow, Woodman and Gillespie will all be among the 25 names submitted to the Premier League.
The Newcastle boss was the first to acknowledge that naming four goalkeepers in his squad would be 'unheard of' when he spoke to reporters last week.
"Well, I think it's a case with Karl is just to see how his physical wellbeing is," he said.
"How long will that be? We've known in the past I've had a player who took at least six weeks.
"With Dubravka, not to set a time limit, but we're hoping in eight weeks maybe. As I said, unfortunately, his wound has got infected, which is going to set him back another couple of weeks.
"Timescales on them two? It's a bit difficult."
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