He joins an already substantial Magpies injury list, with striker Callum Wilson and defender Dan Burn among those out.
“I don’t know what the future holds for Nick, whether he’ll need an operation or not,” Howe told the media.
“It looks bad. It looks like a dislocation of his shoulder, which he has done before. He had it operated on and came back successfully.
“We’ll get it checked out and fingers crossed he’s back soon.”
Pope has made 62 appearances since joining Newcastle from Burnley in the summer of 2022, playing in all 14 of their Premier League games so far this season.
“It will be a massive blow for us if he is ruled out for any length of time,” Howe added on TNT Sports. “It looked really innocuous, but that is usually the way and they are normally the more serious ones.
“You could see he was in distress and it looked like he dislocated his shoulder just diving.”
