Newcastle United injury news: Eddie Howe has a couple of injury concerns to deal with when his side return to St James’ Park this weekend.
Newcastle United return to St James’ Park for the first time since May on Friday night when they face Espanyol in the first of two back-to-back friendly matches against La Liga opposition. The Magpies then face Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid in the Sela Cup on Saturday afternoon in their final pre-season game before their Premier League campaign gets underway against Aston Villa a week later.
Eddie Howe’s side have already faced Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Celtic and Team K-League in a busy pre-season to date, but are yet to record a win. Whilst Howe will be more focussed on getting minutes into his players’ legs and building fitness levels, winning in front of their own fans will be a huge boost for them heading into the new campaign.
With the aforementioned games against Espanyol and Atletico Madrid taking place within 24 hours of each other, Howe is expected to name two entirely different starting sides for those games. He has rotated his starting teams greatly during pre-season so far, but it is likely that those that start at St James’ Park this weekend will be given a fair chunk of minutes to impress, with some academy players to make up the numbers on the substitutes bench.
Howe does have a couple of injury concerns to deal with ahead of those games - and will certainly be without one player for the foreseeable future.
Newcastle United injury news
Joe Willock - calf injury
Willock had been a key feature of pre-season under Howe, but was injured in the dying stages of their clash against Team K-League in South Korea last week. The former Arsenal man has had horrendous luck with injuries in recent years and Howe has confirmed that he will be out of action for between four and six weeks, effectively ruling him out of the first month of the season.
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“We initially feared he could have injured part of his Achilles,” United’s head coach said, “but thankfully that wasn't the case. But it looks like he's got a problem with a muscle in the calf.
“So we feel the injury isn't as serious as maybe first feared, which is great news for Joe, but it's still going to keep him out for a number of weeks. How many we're not sure, but early diagnosis is looking four to six, which, although being a blow, is probably much better than the initial thought. So some positive news on Joe Willock.”
Sven Botman - groin injury
Botman was substituted after just 25 minutes after coming onto the pitch against Arsenal in Singapore. It was revealed post-match that the Dutchman was withdrawn as a precaution, although he did then miss Newcastle’s next two matches in South Korea.
There is hope that he can feature against either Espanyol or Atletico Madrid, although the club will undoubtedly be over cautious with the defender given his recent injury record.
“We didn’t think it was a serious injury at the time and we've had that confirmed with a scan,” Howe said of Botman's injury. “We hope he’ll be available for the double header at St James’ Park.”
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