Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope was scheduled to meet with the media on Monday morning, but due to the events of the weekend, he has opted to cancel his plans.
Pope “doesn’t feel like talking to anyone right now,” according to Craig Hope’s Daily Mail report.
I can’t really blame him on this one; we’ve all done something stupid and then gone into hiding, but most of us won’t have had a gaggle of media bodies poised and ready to make you relive that moment for the entertainment of others.
He is still regarded as a Geordie hero.
Nick Pope’s dismissal was really just the icing on the cake of a truly awful 12-minute spell that saw Newcastle concede twice before the £10m man’s farcical red card.
Newcastle’s ability to keep the score to two goals says a lot about the squad, and on a day when Geordie’s heads were dropped, that should be viewed as a huge positive.
Without Nick Pope, Newcastle would not be where they are this season. A superb run of league clean sheets and a trio of penalty saves in a Carabao Cup shoot-out against Crystal Palace have earned Pope hero status on Tyneside, so this one blemish on his record will not harm his reputation, but it’s easy to see why Pope will be devastated and desperate to avoid the media, especially given the timing of the incident keeping him out of the cup final. on Sunday.
The Carabao Cup does not have a 25-man squad rule.
Loris Karius appears to be the clear choice to replace Pope as a backup goalkeeper for Sunday’s cup final. Martin Dubravka is cup-tied for the game after representing our opponents earlier in the tournament, which makes him eligible for a winner’s medal should Erik Ten Hag’s men win.
Karl Darlow is currently on loan at Hull, so the only other option besides Karius is Mark Gillespie, who has yet to play for the Magpies. Fortunately, the Carabao Cup does not have a 25-man squad rule, or Newcastle would be heading to Wembley with no substitute goalkeeper.
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