Newcastle United lost four players to muscle injuries against Leicester City because of the 'load' of the festive period, according to Steve Bruce.
The Newcastle head coach made just two changes for the visit of Brendan Rodgers' high-flying Foxes as the Magpies played their fourth game in 11 days.
Newcastle kept Leicester out for 35 minutes before the visitors made the most of two sloppy defensive errors to score twice in three minutes.
Jetro Willems and Javier Manquillo then limped off just before half-time with groin and hamstring injuries respectively and Jonjo Shelvey had to come off during the break because he had injured his hamstring.
Just a minute into the second half, Fabian Schar pulled up with his own hamstring issue and while the Switzerland international tried to play on, he was soon hobbling down the tunnel.
It meant that Newcastle had to play the rest of the game with 10 men because Bruce had made all of his three substitutions and, following Ayoze Perez and James Maddison's first-half goals, Hamza Choudhury made it 3-0 late on.
As well as having to contend with four muscle injuries, Newcastle fear DeAndre Yedlin also broke his hand against Rodgers' side.
The Magpies currently have 11 players sidelined and Ciaran Clark, Paul Dummett and Allan Saint-Maximin have missed games this winter with calf, groin and hamstring injuries respectively.
"It's the load. We didn't have the opportunity to change 10. I think Brendan changed nine [in Leicester's previous game against West Ham]," Bruce said.
"If you look at most teams, they make five or six changes. With the injury situation, what we had leading up to it, we didn't have that opportunity.
"I don't want to make that the excuse. At the end of the day, though, in the long time I've been in it, I've never known four people go down injured within 15 minutes. It was a quite bizarre 15 minutes - and the two goals we've conceded were poor."
