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Lewis Hall was an unused substitute in Newcastle United’s 3-1 defeat to West Ham United.
The 21-year-old picked up a hamstring injury last month having not long returned from five months out with a foot injury.
After substitute appearances against Liverpool and Leeds United, Hall made his first start of the campaign for the goalless draw away to AFC Bournemouth and kept his place for the 4-1 Carabao Cup win over Bradford City a few days.
Fatigue then saw Hall miss the following game at home to Arsenal before appearing as a substitute in the 4-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions League.
Newcastle United’s initial Lewis Hall fears
It was during that game in Brussels when Hall felt his hamstring. Newcastle initially feared Hall would be sidelined long-term but a second scan revealed much better news.
Speaking at the time, Howe said: “The second scan was good news. There were different scales of time he could be out, it's the shorter time, so we hope he'll be back during this period of games we have before the next international break.
“We don't know exactly when that will be, but we expect him to, if he doesn't suffer any ill effects from anything that he's doing, to be back at some stage. And as I said from the first scan, that might not have been possible.
“So good news, he's such an important player for us and hopefully we can keep him fit.”
Hall missed five matches in total before returning for the matchday squad for the visit to West Ham on Sunday.
Eddie Howe explains his Newcastle United substitutions v West Ham
Jacob Murphy handed the Magpies the lead in the fourth minute but a goal from Lucas Paqueta and an own goal by Sven Botman put the Hammers 2-1 up heading into half-time.
Howe reacted by making a triple change at the break, bringing on Fabian Schar, Jacob Ramsey and Will Osula in place of Emil Krafth, Anthony Gordon and Will Osula.
Harvey Barnes and Anthony Elanga were later introduced, with Botman and Murphy making way. Neither change made an impact as West Ham added a third in stoppage time through Tomas Soucek.
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Howe said: “I was really disappointed with the first half. It started so well, we scored early and we thought we could really grab hold of the game from that moment, but we didn't and let it slip away. The longer that half went on, the more frustrated I was with our performance and we were unrecognisable in certain aspects of our game.
“I made the change to try and bring some energy and a different dynamic to the team, a different feeling and different relationships on the pitch. I thought we were better in the second half, I don't think we were particularly great though. It depends why we didn't get back in the game.”
Lewis Hall unused sub v West Ham - here’s why
As Newcastle chased the game, some were surprised to see Hall overlooked, but Howe explained after the game why he was unable to call upon the former Chelsea left-back.
Howe said: “I was very reluctant to put him on. We had no other senior professionals to put on the bench today. If we did, then he wouldn't have been on that, but he's done one training session with us and I don't want to push him too early.”
Kieran Trippier was unavailable through illness while Tino Livramento and Yoane Wissa remain sidelined. There was no sign of Jamaal Lascelles, though no injury has been publicly reported.
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