Tonali facing suspension risk as three Newcastle players walk December tightrope
Sandro Tonali missed much of 2024 through suspension following a breach in football's gambling rules, but he's now at risk of missing one of our final games of the year for a very different reason.
During Wednesday night's 3-3 draw with Liverpool at St James' Park, the Italian picked up his fourth yellow card of the season, leaving him a single booking away from a one-game ban.
The former AC Milan start has started just six times this season, but bookings against Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool mean he goes into tomorrow's trip to Brentford one booking away from suspension.
Tonali was superb in midweek and will hopefully be fit enough to go again on Saturday, with Eddie Howe revealing in today's pre-match press conference that he was suffering with cramp before he was subbed off.
Two other Mags at risk
Two others at risk of suspension include Fabian Schar and Joelinton, who are also on four yellows and left walking a tightrope over our next five games.
Premier League rules state that any player who receives five yellows over the first 19 games of the season will be suspended for one game, meaning Tonali, Schar and Joelinton will be hoping to avoid yellows over the following fixtures:
- Brentford vs Newcastle - Saturday 7th December
- Newcastle vs Leicester - Saturday 14th December
- Ipswich vs Newcastle - Saturday 21st December
- Newcastle vs Aston Villa - Thursday 26th December
- Man Utd vs Newcastle - Monday 30th December
Once these five games are out of the way and we head into 2025, we'll have passed the 19 game cut-off and entered the 10-yellow rule where players risk a two-match ban before the 33rd game of the season.
After Dan Burn's yellow card at Nottingham Forest last month saw him move to five and miss our home defeat to West Ham, we'll have to hope most - if not all - of Tonali, Schar and Joelinton stay out of the referee's book; although there's every chance we lose at least one at some stage over the busy festive period.
As you may remember, Bruno Guimaraes flirted with the prospect of a two-game ban for large parts of last season, being on nine yellow cards for what felt like an age. Hopefully the three currently at risk can achieve a similar feat this month!
