Rafa Benitez confirmed that Ipswich won’t face their former striker Daryl Murphy at St James’ Park this afternoon.
Murphy, 33, joined the Magpies for £3 million close to the end of the transfer window, signing a two-year deal, having handed in a transfer request.
But the Waterford-born frontman has so far only played in one game, the 2-0 EFL Cup victory over Wolves last month.
“When he first signed, we were playing [Dwight] Gayle and he was scoring goals,” Benitez explained.
“We had [Aleksandar] Mitrovic, and Murphy played in the cup. After some time, Murphy felt tightness in his calf, and now we do not want to take any risks with him.
“He is training now, but he is not playing because Gayle is still scoring goals and we have Mitro waiting. He is not in the squad.
“At the moment he is unavailable. He is improving, but it is not something we can take risks with now.
“He is not someone we had watched for a long time, but when we were looking for strikers with experience in this competition.
“We had to pick one from two or three, and he was one of the options and he wanted to come here.
“And we liked him. We knew he was not to be a starter, but we thought he could do well because he is clever, has good movement for a target man and is quite mobile.
“We saw that in the cup. He was perfect for what we were expecting in the Championship.
“He is fine, a little disappointed to have a little injury, but in terms of attitude, I think he has been fine.
“We were really pleased with how he played in the cup, and we are disappointed he cannot play at the moment.”