Newcastle host fourth-place Chelsea in the early kickoff sitting 12th on the Premier League table and short of numbers at the back.
The latest absentee is Tino Livramento, with the wing-back breaking down during the Carabao Cup quarterfinal win against Fulham.
Howe delivered an update in this morning's media preview: "No, I don't think it's a serious injury but the complication is Tino has injured that knee before in a similar area which makes the recovery time a little bit longer.
"We probably won't see him until 2026."
On if fellow wing-back Lewis Hall will make the match against his former club, Howe was optimistic: "He could be, he felt some fatigue in his hamstring after the Sunderland game a couple of days afterwards.
"He had a scan which didn't reveal too much so let's see."
He continued: "The disappointing thing is we don't have a huge number of injuries but it is focused in one area and it is stretched us. The fixture congestion this season has been no other and we haven't had a week to regroup.
"But that is where we want to be as a football club so finding a way of managing that is all part of the process. Hopefully those players aren't out too long and we have the transfer window if we need it."
Chelsea inexperience
Howe, moving onto tomorrow's opponents, hinted they could rattle Chelsea given their youth and inexperience.
He went on: "There has been a lot of change at Chelsea in recent seasons. They've gone youthful in their recruitment and you will see the benefits of that in years to come.
"You can see Enzo's philosophy. He did a magnificent job at Leicester and taken that to Chelsea. They are a team I enjoy to watch and they are very pattern orientated and shape orientated. We had some good battles against them last season and we need to be competitive."
Wissa bonus
On Yoane Wissa scoring a first goal for Newcastle in that Cup win against Fulham, Howe admits the summer signing's return to full fitness has been much-needed.
"I think he's responded well," said the manager. "He played very well in the game, his movement was excellent and his fitness for how long he's been out was very good. He played longer than we planned because he looked good. It was a really good start for him."
Howe also had a word for young defender Alex Murphy after his Cup performance.
"Important moment for the team, Alex did really well and has trained with us for a long time, had a good loan spell but not a huge amount of exposure to game time. Performances like that will do everyone good in the long term."
Market plans?
Before wrapping up this morning, Howe was asked about the rumours of recalling Matt Targett from his loan at Middlesbrough given their injury problems.
He replied, "We will let him concentrate on his football. We will have those conversations if and when we need to."
Asked for a more general answer on Newcastle's January plans, Howe concluded: "We don't want to recruit anybody to fix a short term need to create a long term problem.
"I think we will make decisions on what that injury situation looks like in the first week of January."