Pope suffered knee ligament damage in last week’s defeat at Brentford, with the Magpies getting a definitive verdict on the injury when the keeper met with a specialist on Friday.
Martin Dubravka kept an easy clean sheet against Leicester on Saturday but Pope’s absence is still a blow for Newcastle ahead of a run of important Premier League games and Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup quarter final against Brentford.
Howe said: “He saw the specialist and the feedback is that he’s going to be out for around a month, so bad timing for us and for Nick because there are a lot of games in that four-week period. We hope that after that four weeks, he’ll be in good enough condition to play.
“He injured himself just passing a ball against Brentford. It was really innocuous-looking, it was a left-footed pass, but his knee didn’t feel particularly good afterwards, so that’s the plan.”
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Newcastle will also be without Joelinton for next week’s Premier League trip to Ipswich Town after the midfielder picked up his fifth yellow card of the season against Leicester – despite being warned by Howe from the sidelines just two minutes before he was cautioned.
Yellow cards aren’t carried over to cup competitions so the Brazilian will still be available for the midweek Brentford cup tie.
Howe said: “It’s bizarre how things work. I’m talking to him from the side, he’s right in front of me and I’m saying ‘Joey, don’t get booked’, and he’s like ‘don’t worry I won’t’. Two minutes later he gets booked. You just couldn’t make it up.
“In some senses sometimes these things happen. I’m disappointed to lose him because he’s a player we need in every away game but at least he can now play free and play his normal game.”
