Newcastle take on Qarabag in Baku’s Tofiq Bahramov Republic Stadium tomorrow night, with the return leg scheduled to take place on Tyneside next Tuesday. The winners of the two-legged tie will secure a place in the last 16 against either Barcelona or Chelsea.
The Magpies head into the game buoyed by Saturday’s FA Cup win at Aston Villa, and have received a further boost via Joelinton’s presence in the squad that touched down in Azerbaijan earlier today.
The Brazilian midfielder has been sidelined since suffering a groin injury in last month’s league defeat to Villa, but is now back in full training
“Joelinton's back in the squad so that’s a great boost for us,” said Howe. “He's such an important player, such a big presence within our squad, such a real leader. He trained yesterday and trained well, and felt really good.
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“No one else from the missing list has travelled from the last game so we're missing quite a few players, quite a few real quality players as well. They're big misses for us, but we come in here good spirits from our last two games.
"We will play our strongest team in the sense that we will try and win the game. There'll be no thinking of the schedule ahead - this game, in isolation, is hugely important.”
Krafth will not be involved as he has been taken out of Newcastle’s Champions League squad and replaced by goalkeeper John Ruddy.
The Swedish defender’s most recent appearance came in November’s league defeat to West Ham as he has been struggling with a knee injury. That has now required surgery, meaning Krafth is not expected to play again this season.
The 31-year-old’s current contract is due to expire in the summer and he is not expected to be offered a new deal, meaning he has almost certainly already made his final appearance in a Newcastle shirt.
“Emil's had an operation on his knee so I think, in all likelihood, it looks like the season is over, which is a real blow for us,” said Howe. “He first had the problem on international duty.
“We hoped that he could come back and be okay, but it became apparent in training recently that he wasn't going to get to the level needed and there needed to be a surgical intervention.”