Mauricio Pochettino has confirmed that Christopher Nkunku will not be fit to be involved in Chelsea’s visit to Newcastle on Saturday. There had been hopes that the £52million summer signing from RB Leipzig would have sufficiently recovered from the knee injury he sustained on the pre-season tout of the United States to play a part at St James’ Park. But, despite being fit enough to have taken part in training with the first team, the 26-year-old has not worked tactically with the squad and will not travel. Chelsea struggled without the France international in Pochettino’s first Premier League games in charge, with the goalscoring problems that he had been acquired to help solve carrying over from a tumultuous campaign last season during which the team scored fewer league goals than they had in almost a century. Those issues have become less urgent in recent weeks, with four goals scored on three separate occasions against Burnley, Tottenham and Manchester City. By contrast, the team had not previously scored four times in a game since April 2022. “(Nkunku) was doing things with the group last week,” said Pochettino. “But he’s not fully recovered to be part of the squad. “He’s a fantastic player, top scorer in the Bundesliga last season. He can play different positions, his quality is amazing. It’s really bad luck to lose him from the beginning of the season. “We’re going to find the best way for him to fit in the team. He’s going to find massive competition. His team-mates are ahead of him, they’ve had four months of competition. He needs to build his form and be at his best level. “We need to understand he’s coming back from injury, he will need time. We will be patient with him. “It’s not a competition (the Premier League) that he’s normally used to. He came from Europe, he needs to recover from injury but also to know the league. It’ll take time to perform at his best.” Pochettino confirmed that Romeo Lavia, signed in the last week of the transfer window from Southampton for £53m, is also nearing fitness but is slightly behind the progress made by Nkunku. Wesley Fofana has trained on grass at Cobham as he continues his rehabilitation from an ACL injury, though is unlikely to be available before the new year. Chelsea had come into form prior to the international break with five wins from eight in all competitions, a run which saw them score 19 times having previously netted only seven in their first seven under Pochettino. The manager is hopeful that the pause will not have disrupted his side’s rhythm ahead of their visit to face Eddie Howe’s side. “The break came at a bad time,” he said. “It came in a moment we were building a way to play, results were on our side. But I believe we can keep momentum even after two weeks with no competition.” I believe we can keep momentum even after two weeks with no competition Mauricio Pochettino Pochettino added that the squad has held group discussions about why performances and results have been better this season against the stronger teams – draws with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City and victory over Spurs – while there have been home losses to Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa. “It’s part of the process,” he said. “We’re a young team, we started to work four months ago. We need to be more mature, more patient. We cannot get frustrated so soon when things don’t work. “Expectation creates nervousness when you play a team with less quality than you. You take rushed decisions, get frustrated. You want to do the job of your team-mate.”

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A conspiracy theorist has cast their doubt over the existence of dinosaurs for a bizarre reason and people have been left speechless. In a viral TikTok, a woman could heard asking: “If dinosaurs actually existed, wouldn’t their bones be everywhere?” Amazingly, she also told people to test their “critical thinking skills” and asked why the “average Joe” has never dug them up. She said: “Like, why haven’t you or I, or anyone we know, ever found a bone?” The woman was also puzzled as to why palaeontologists are able to find entire dinosaur bones that haven’t decayed and still have features such as teeth. The bizarre conspiracy can be quickly put to bed with science and the discovery of fossils all over the world, on every continent. The reason dinosaur bones aren’t found under every piece of Earth is that fossilisation requires a specific environment in order to preserve the remains. @queenofeverything0003 For entertainment purposes ONLY ? #historytok #fyp #truth #dinosaurs #dinosaursuit #truthtok #giants First, the remains need to be buried and completely covered in layers of sediment. This building of layers created enough pressure to compress the remains and form sediment rock. Minerals within the sediment penetrate the bones turning them to stone. Dr David Button, a dinosaur researcher at the Natural History Museum, explained: “Most of the dinosaur fossils we find are from animals that were living near to a lake or river. “Some died shortly before the area flooded and covered their remains in mud and silt. Others were washed into a river by heavy rain.” He added: “We don't know about many dinosaurs that lived in jungle or mountain environments. Fossils are very unlikely to form in such situations.” The viral TikTok was shared on X/Twtter where people certainly had some thoughts. One person wrote: “Could genuinely only bear watching the first 15 seconds but what’s really getting me is ‘no normal person has ever found dinosaur bones’. “Like isn’t that how palaeontology started? There are plenty of famous stories of regular people finding fossils by accident.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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