The injury list inevitably gets longer, and the shirkers "go missing".
The club's history is littered with them: Marcelino, Luque, Maric, Babayaro, Guivarc'h, Bassedas, Owen, etc. Do we have such-like in our squad now?
Alan Pardew pointed to injuries after Newcastle United extended their run of results to just one win in eight games.
Alan Pardew: “I do think that most of the recent results have been impacted by injuries we have sustained.
“We took another one today in Mathieu Debuchy, he’s a big player for us.
“We have Papiss out, Loic out, Cheick, Coloccini - we need those players back.
“Especially games at this level.
“Although I’m saying Sammy Ameobi and Paul Dummett did well, you have to understand the level we are playing at.
“When the intensity is out there like it is today it is a really tough call to play in those games, you need your better players.
“I’d like to think that Tottenham is a game where we can get a strong result then after that our best players might come back to us.
“In the last 13 games we can be strong, then in the summer we have work to do.
“I thought in the first half we played well with the players we had available.
“We had a fantastic chance at 1-0 to throw real confusion into the game.
“We missed a chance (Sissoko) and they went straight up the other end and they got the second.
“They are a good team.
“Their work-rate was phenomenal I thought.
“They are a very good team with the technical ability that they have.
“I have to say coming out of the game we had a few positives ourselves.
“I thought Sammy Ameobi, Paul Dummett and inparticular Luuk De Jong gave performances that in the next 13 games will be important for us.
“I was disappointed with the penalty decision in terms of my player.
“I don’t know why he’s grabbed him in that manner.
“Mapou is scratching his head as to why he got himself in that position.
“But it was a real soft goal.
“I have been to many, many games in this stadium.
“And a goal can change the atmosphere here quite quickly.”