As clubs face their fourth outing inside nine days, Newcastle Graeme Souness found his celebrations, at seeing his side end their seven-game winless run against Birmingham on Saturday, cut short by a shortage of strikers ahead of Monday's visit to bottom club West Brom.

Welsh striker Craig Bellamy, whose career has been haunted by injuries, limped out of the 2-1 win with a knee injury and joins skipper Alan Shearer and Patrick Kluivert on the sidelines.

Stand-in striker Shola Ameobi, who scored one of the goals on Saturday, has been playing through the pain barrier with a shoulder problem in his last two games.

But it's the injury to Bellamy, who has already undergone five knee operations during his career, that is causing Souness his greatest worry.

"Craig came off with a knee injury and we will have to see what that is on Sunday," said the coach.

"He did not get a bang on it, it has just come on as the game has gone on. I do not think he got a bang on it anyway."

Shearer's planned comeback stalled after the veteran damaged a calf muscle in training on Friday while Kluivert is still suffering from a hamstring strain.

Liverpool, now 18 points behind leaders Chelsea after losing 1-0 to the Londoners on Saturday, go to Norwich Monday with injury worries of their own.

Djibril Cisse is already out for the season with a broken leg while top-scorer Milan Baros is unlikely to play at Norwich joining Harry Kewell sidelines.

To add to his problems, Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez lost Xabi Alonso for at least five weeks after picking up an ankle injury against Chelsea.

"We are losing an important player now seemingly every week. Maybe we need 30 players in our squad to cope," said the frustrated Benitez.

In Monday's other matches, Blackburn face Charlton while Crystal Palace take on Aston Villa.