Newcastle United played a behind-closed-doors friendly during the international break.
Newcastle United played a training-ground friendly with Championship side Middlesbrough during the three-week international break.
The Gazette understands Boro claimed a 1-0 win against a Newcastle side made up of Under-21s players and non-internationals. Last week, the Magpies had just six outfield first-team players involved in training.
Joe Willock, Jacob Murphy, Sven Botman and Harvey Barnes trained while Nico Gonzalez and Joelinton were also back involved after missing United’s last Premier League match against Hull City due to injury.
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Captain Dan Burn remained sidelined and is yet to feature for Matthias Jaissle in a competitive match. But Amar Dedic and William Osula have returned to training during the break.
Jacob Ramsey, Tino Livramento and Anthony Elanga remain out while goalkeeper Ewen Jaouen picked up a serious hamstring injury while away with France Under-21s during the break and faces a couple of months out.
When asked about a training ground friendly, Jaissle said: “I love that nothing came out [about it].”
A fitting comment given Boro were infamously spied on in training by Southampton last season under the orders of Jaissle’s fellow German and Red Bull coaching alumni, Tonda Eckert.
“We had one,” he continued. “Middlesbrough, last week.
“So we used that for the few guys who were here, but also we used that for the young lads from the academy, getting some minutes, so overall good.”
Jaissle didn’t give much away about the game itself other than his side didn’t win.
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Next up for Newcastle is a trip to Coventry City on Monday night (8pm kick-off) as they look to pick up successive Premier League wins for the first time this season.
With players pushing for a return from injury, Jaissle was asked how quickly he would ease players back in. In Burn and Joelinton, Newcastle have been without their captain and vice-captain since the start of the season.
“Yeah, we for sure want to treat every player in the same way with an individual approach,” Jaissle explained. “Obviously, that's also important, but you need to see player by player how he's doing physically-wise, how he feels after a long injury, if the medical department is giving a green light or not.
“So there are, again, many aspects to making the decision, but we are all happy to have them back as soon as possible.”