Sky Sports have confirmed that Newcastle United players have ‘returned to train in small groups’ at the club’s Benton base this morning.
In this update from Keith Downie, he also confirms that those who tested positive at the beginning of the outbreak – likely to be the THREE unnamed players Bruce ruled out of the Palace game – have served their 10 day self-isolation periods and are now able to resume training.
This is another big of promising news ahead of Saturday’s potential clash with West Brom, with Sky Sports stating that the game at St James’ is ‘likely’ to go ahead, however Downie does insist that it is still ‘unclear’ whether Newcastle will ask the Premier League to postpone.
Here’s what he’s had to say in an update from the club’s training base this afternoon:
‘Newcastle’s players have returned to train in small groups for the first time in 12 days.
‘Those that tested positive at outset of outbreak have served 10 day isolation.
‘Unclear whether the club have asked the Premier League to have this weekend’s match against WBA postponed.’
On the plus side, we must’ve contained the spread to *some* extent to allow the training centre to reopen and small groups to return, however we still don’t know just how many will be unable to feature this weekend.
We could be missing a high percentage of our first-team squad and don’t yet know just how many senior have been deemed fit and safe to return to training, making Saturday’s game more likely than it seemed 24 hours ago yet still very much unclear.
Either way, let’s hope those infected make a full recovery and are back in action before long after almost two weeks away!
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