To the surprise of no one, the wantaway Alexander Isak (£10.5m) won’t be considered for selection for Newcastle United’s trip to Aston Villa on Saturday.
“Alex’s situation has been unchanged for a while and that will continue to be the case.” – Eddie Howe on Alexander Isak
Isak aside, Eddie Howe confirmed on Friday morning that Magpies only have one absentee – that’s midfielder Joe Willock (£5.0m). He suffered a calf injury against K League on July 30 and was ruled out for four to six weeks.
Anthony Gordon (£7.5m) looks set to be fit, then, despite hobbling off with an ankle issue last weekend.
“As I sit here now, yeah, I think everyone is available apart from Joe. And Joe is not too far away himself. We’ve got a relatively good-looking squad in terms of injury news.” – Eddie Howe
Meanwhile, new signing Malick Thiaw (£5.0m) will be part of the squad.
“Yes, Malick will [be in the squad]. He’s trained for two days, never easy coming in right at the end of pre-season because a lot of our work is already done and our structures are already in place. But in the little bits that we’ve seen, I think we’ve signed a top-quality player.” – Eddie Howe
Howe batted a question away about which goalkeeper he’d pick, saying only that he had a “good idea of the team”.