Newcastle United's Brazilian midfielder #39 Bruno Guimaraes reacts ash he leaves the pitch after being substituted off injured during the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on February 10, 2026. (Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP via Getty Images) /placeholder image
Newcastle United's Brazilian midfielder #39 Bruno Guimaraes reacts ash he leaves the pitch after being substituted off injured during the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on February 10, 2026. (Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP via Getty Images) / | AFP via Getty Images
Eddie Howe has provided an official update on the fitness of Lewis Miley, Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton ahead of the FA Cup trip to Aston Villa.
While a positive result, The Magpies were hit with a fresh injury blow to captain Bruno Guimaraes. The Brazilian hobbled off with a suspected hamstring issue at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, rendering him a doubt for Saturday’s trip to Villa Park.
Lewis Miley has also missed the last four matches with a leg injury while Joelinton has missed the last five due to a groin issue.
Speaking ahead of the trip to Birmingham, Howe provided an update on the midfield trio.
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“With Lewy, we're waiting sort of day by day,” Howe said. “He's got a sort of a dead leg. So he got a bad knock to his thigh. I think there's a little bit of muscle damage on the knock.
“So sort of having scans on it sort of every few days to see how that is. We don't think it's going to be long-term. Hopefully, he'll be back pretty quickly. So let's wait and see on that one.
“With Bruno, we're awaiting the full extent of the hamstring injury.
“Joelinton is doing really well. I don't think he'll make this game, but he's not going to be too far away beyond this game. So he's desperate to be back involved as he normally is, but that's a great sign for us.
“That means he's feeling good about his body and he's very positive.”
It means Miley is likely to miss his fifth game for Newcastle while it’s six games out for Joelinton since picking up his groin injury in the league match against Villa last month.
Eddie Howe on Aston Villa
Newcastle will be hoping to progress to the fifth round of the FA Cup against one of the top performers in the Premier League so far this season.
It's a tough draw and I think whenever you're away from home, especially with the run that we're on away from home in terms of the consecutive fixtures, I wouldn't say we think too deeply about it in the moment,” Howe added.
“You absorb it, you take it in, you go, well, that's not ideal and then you quickly move on and go, well, we've got to do it. That's where we are.
“The more sympathy for the supporters who then, as you say, have to make all the sacrifices and the travel arrangements to get to Birmingham for the game.
“Now our job is to make all that travel and all that disruption to their lives and the cost worthwhile and that's what we're trying to do.”
Howe continued: “We are here to try and win [the FA Cup]. I've said so many times we loved last year in the Carabao Cup and what that meant to everybody, what that meant to us, the experience we went through to win the competition and we'd love to do it in any other way that we can.
“If that's the FA Cup, then that would be a great opportunity for us. We look at tomorrow as just an opportunity to win this game that's in front of us. We've then got, of course, a long travel midweek back into the Champions League, but we'll worry about that when we get there. All focus and all eyes are on this game.”
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