Eddie Howe has addressed a viral parody post that claimed Newcastle star Joe Willock had to be rescued from York Maze, saying he spoke to the midfielder about the apparent incident
12:39, 17 Oct 2025Updated 12:46, 17 Oct 2025
Eddie Howe
View 3 Images
Eddie Howe spoke about Joe Willock's viral parody incident at York Maze(Image: Getty Images)
Eddie Howe has been forced to address a viral parody post about Joe Willock’s safety.
A post on X claiming that the Newcastle midfielder, 26, had to be rescued from York Maze after he made a distress call to emergency services having being lost in the UK’s largest maze for approximately six hours, went viral on social media.
Obviously, the post came from a parody account, Francis Chipp, who claims to be a Newcastle and Real Madrid fan and an award-winning Premier League football expert, and was nothing short of a brilliantly amusing post.
While the account clearly states in the bio: “Everything I post is made up,” it caught plenty of attention with 47k account liking the post and 3.7k users retweeting the hilarious knock up - with BBC Radio One ever reporting on the bizarre claim.
One joker even joined in on the gag in the comments section, saying: “Can confirm I worked on the air ambulance that attended the scene..we found him scared and dehydrated so we gave him a foil blanket and a custard cream and he purked up.”
Joe Willock
View 3 Images
A parody account joked that Joe Willock got lost inside York Maze for six hours(Image: Newcastle United via Getty Image)
But the light-hearted nature of the post seemingly didn’t stop it from becoming a major talking point at Newcastle, as Howe explained in his press conference that he spoke to Willock about his so-called incident.
Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie reported the Magpies boss as saying: “Yeah I did discuss it with him…just to check whether it was true or not! That was at the early stages, and thankfully it wasn’t.
“But no, Joe is fine - he’s good. He’s got the ability to laugh at it rather than be concerned about it.”
York Maze
View 3 Images
York Maze is one of the largest mazes in the world(Image: Peter Harbour Yorkshire Live)
While Willock didn’t go missing in the York Maze, he might as well have done early on this season on the pitch for the Magpies, with the former England U21 international playing just 87 minutes in the Premier League so far.
Willock started the 0-0 draw against Bournemouth but was replaced shortly after the hour mark. His only other appearance in the top-flight was a cameo off the bench in the 1-0 win against Wolves.
With Howe’s set midfield trio of Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton all fit and firing at the start of the season, Willock is having to remain patient to get his chance.
Don't miss a thing with football updates!
Want to be on the ball with all of the latest football news? Well then sign up for the brilliant Daily Star Football email newsletter!
From the latest transfer news to breaking stories, get it all in your email inbox.
How do you sign up?
It only takes a matter of seconds.
Simply click on this link, then provide your email address and that's it, job done. You'll receive an email with all of the top football stories.
You can also sign up for our sport email, Off the Ball, for all the latest darts, boxing, snooker, F1 stories and more, right here
York Maze is 15 acres in size, roughly the equivalent of eight football pitches, and made with over one million maize plants.
Article continues below
If Willock did find himself lost in the maze, it would certainly be the most amount of ground he would have covered this campaign.