Newcastle United v Athletic Club - Jordan Cronin previews
Newcastle United captain Bruno Guimaraes has been feeling unwell in recent days.
Guimaraes played a full game on Sunday as the Magpies lost 3-1 away to West Ham United in the Premier League but was absent from training on Tuesday.
Several Newcastle players have been hit with illness in recent weeks. Kieran Trippier was forced to sit out of the West Ham match but has returned to training ahead of the Bilbao match.
Sandro Tonali was only fit enough to make the bench in recent games against Benfica and Fulham, while Jacob Murphy has also been ill of late.
Newcastle United captain Bruno Guimaraes hit with illness
Guimaraes is the latest player to be feeling unwell, which has cast doubt over his availability against Bilbao.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Howe said: “Yeah, so there seems like there's been a bit of illness going through the squad because that's various players now have picked something up.
“So I think Sandro initially, Jacob Murphy, Bruno, Kieran. So we're making a decision on Bruno tomorrow.
“He's such an important player for us, but he's clearly not been himself and that's why he missed training today.”
Bruno Guimaraes drops social media hint ahead Athletic Bilbao game
In the hours leading up to kick-off, Guimaraes has dropped a hint over his involvement by uploading a matchday graphic to his Instagram page.
The 27-year-old was present at the club’s Benton training ground on Tuesday but did a session indoors rather than joining the rest his teammates outdoors.
Newcastle United looking to bounce back from West Ham defeat
Howe and his squad were heavily criticised for the defeat at West Ham, which prompted Guimaraes to issue an apology to supporters on social media.
“I don't think they [the players] owe me because I think I'm very much included in that bad performance,” Howe said. “So I look at it that way, that we're all together and we all have to deliver better. So very focused on trying to do that with the players.
“I think there's always a feeling of frustration, different emotions when you play that way, that you then try and use to your advantage for the future. And as you say, historically we have usually responded pretty well.
“We've tried to use performances like that as a catalyst for better, to try to learn from the experience. It's not the first time it's happened, it won't be the last. When you're in this game, especially with the amount of games we have to play, there will be dips in performance, but it's controlling that.
“And as I've said many times, even when you don't play well, you can still win and we didn't deliver that aspect at all.”
A win tonight would take Newcastle back into the top eight of the Champions League table, having won back-to-back games against Union Saint-Gilloise and Benfica .
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