Newcastle United's defensive woes have intensified ahead of the clash with Leeds United.
The Magpies were dealt a pre-match blow ahead of their 2-0 defeat against Aston Villa when Paul Dummett, Republic of Ireland international Ciaran Clark and Fede Fernandez were missing and forced Steve Bruce to play Isaac Hayden in a five-man defence.
Bruce is weighing up whether to stick with a five-man defence again against newly promoted Leeds United but will certainly be without Dummett, Clark and Fernandez once more.
With DeAndre Yedlin also missing due to visa problems, Newcastle are down to the bare bones at the back.
He said: "Over this period, we’ve had illness, more importantly than anything, and injuries.
"Even tomorrow, we’ve got three centre backs out.
"It’s not just a defender, a midfielder and a forward player – all our injuries tomorrow are in a certain position.
"We’ve been a bit unfortunate in that respect, but as I said I never look for excuses like that because it’s part and parcel of it.
"But certainly, we’ve missed Allan in particular because he does give us the goal threat which unfortunately we’ve been missing."
Bruce can't hide from Newcastle's woeful form though with their run without a victory stretching back to early December and 10 matches in all competitions.
He reflected: "As I’ve said many times, we’re not alone in the Premier League, that’s what a difficult league it is.
"All you can do is prepare as best you can, try and ignore the noise, and focus on the match which is now another opportunity, and get ready for the challenge of Leeds tomorrow night.
"You’ve got to find a little bit. We need to go and get a result.
"Yes, I’ve seen little bits – we got into some good areas the other night and crossed it.
"But confidence is a little bit low, of course, but the only way you can do it is to go back on the training ground like we will again today, prepare as best we can and get ready for Leeds and turn it around."
