Aleksandar Mitrovic's Newcastle future is in doubt after the cult hero was left out of the club's last two matchday squads and fell down the striking pecking order.





The forward has been left out of the Magpies' 18-man squads to face Huddersfield and Reading after a run of form that has yielded just six goals in 23 appearances this season, and the ​Sun has now claimed that his time in the North East will come to an end in the summer.





Manager Rafael Benitez has opted to play veteran striker Daryl Murphy ahead of Mitrovic, despite 21-goal top scorer Dwight Gayle being absent due to a hamstring strain since mid-January, and the Serbia international's demotion to third choice to front Newcastle's attacks has left many predicting that his career on Tyneside will not last past the summer transfer window.

Mitrovic had started five successive matches for Newcastle between February 4 and February 25, but the 22-year-old only completed the full 90 minutes once - the 2-2 draw with Bristol City - and bagged a solitary strike from that run as the lone frontman for Benitez's side.





Mitrovic was relegated to the bench for the 2-1 victory over Championship title rivals Brighton & Hove Albion on the final day of last month, and was not utilised from by Benitez during that crunch encounter.





His absence from the first-team fold in Newcastle's past two games has led Magpies supporters to wonder what the future holds for Mitrovic, and it could well be that the St. James' Park faithful will only see him feature sporadically before the 2016/17 campaign ends.

Rafa confirms Aleksandar Mitrovic hasn't travelled with #NUFC to Reading after being left out the squad again.



Not looking good for Mitro.. pic.twitter.com/sdKXpPIclR — Black&WhiteBarmy (@BlackWhiteBarmy) March 7, 2017

Mitrovic joined Newcastle in July 2015 from Anderlecht for a fee thought to be worth around £15m.





The hot-headed striker immediately made the wrong headlines as he picked up two bookings and a red card in his first four matches in the Premier League for wild challenges, and bagged just nine goals in 36 games last term as Newcastle suffered relegation to England's second tier.





Clubs in Italy are thought to be interested in providing the former Partizan Belgrade man a chance to revitalise his career, but it remains to be seen where Mitrovic's next step will take him.



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