Newcastle United will face the midfielder for the first time since selling him.
The Magpies head to Elland Road searching for their first win of the new Premier League campaign - but one of their own will be trying to stop them.
Sean Longstaff brought an end to his 19-year association with Newcastle after joining Leeds for £15million last month.
The 27-year-old made 214 senior appearances and scored 16 goals, including one against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, but gradually fell down the midfield pecking order last season.
Now he’s preparing to face his boyhood club for the first time, where he is expected to start with first-choice midfielders Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka ruled out through injury.
Eddie Howe on reuniting with Sean Longstaff
Asked how “strange” it’ll be coming up against Longstaff, Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said: “It's always a unique thing when you come up against players you know so well. I've done it a lot in my management career.
“It can be a difficult thing because Sean, for us, was so good. He was very popular, as you say, in the dressing room. He was very popular with the coaches because whatever job you asked him to do, he would deliver to the best of his ability.
“He's been part of some special nights for the football club. Played his part on our journey to where we are now. So we thank him a lot for that. Of course, we're going up against him now tomorrow. But it will be great to see him out on the pitch doing what he does.
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“That's definitely his game, that's why we loved him so much, based on running energy. He played with a real passion for Newcastle as well. His love for the club, I think, shone through with how he played.
“So, yeah, if he plays against us tomorrow, he will cover every blade of grass and we're going to need to match that in that key midfield area.”
Sean Longstaff on why he joined Leeds United
Explaining why he swapped the North East for West Yorkshire, Longstaff said: “I think there is something to be said for a team that wants you and a club that really wants you,” Longstaff said on his move to Leeds. I think from the first time I spoke to Leeds, I sort of got a feeling that they really wanted me.
“It just fills you full of confidence and it just makes you want to repay those people. It is a massive, massive football club similar to Newcastle in a lot of ways.
“It was going to take a lot for us to leave Newcastle to be honest and I wasn’t just going to leave to go anywhere so it had to be the right place for me and my family and I think this is a perfect place.
“Every time I came to play at Leeds the atmosphere was amazing it was always bouncing and a really tough place to play and just looking forward to having that on my side rather than having to play against.”
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