Newcastle Transfers: New Striker Urgency After Papiss Cisse Injury

Papiss Cisse will undergo an operation on his groin injury in Paris, reports the Chronicle. This will prolong his absence from the Newcastle first team with early estimates suggesting he could now be out for up to five weeks. That would likely see him miss 7 or 8 games, a huge run for Newcastle to be without their number 9 in their fight against relegation. Cisse being on the sidelines heightens United head coach Steve McClaren's urgency to purchase a new striker. Big question marks still surround Aleksandar Mitrovic's ability to consistently put the ball in the back of the net, leaving only Ivan Toney (picked up from the lower leagues in the summer and severely lacking experience at this level) and Emmanuel Riviere (who has been sidelined through injury all season to date and had a torrid season last campaign with only one, scuffed, league goal to his name) as his out and out striking options. As for where Newcastle could turn for a striker, there's no real credible links being branded around right now. Charlie Austin is still available but to date neither The Magpies or any other Premier League club have matched QPR's asking price... though it will be interesting to see if that relents as the window starts to close.