According to some ‘breaking news’ from Sky Sports in the last few moments, Saturday’s clash with West Brom WILL go ahead as planned – despite a host of players being ruled out with COVID-19.
After small groups of the senior squad returned to training for the first time in 13 days this afternoon, it’s believed that Steve Bruce does have enough players to field a team against the Baggies at St James’ Park this weekend.
Sky Sports insist that a ‘handful of players’ remain at home and in self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 over the past 10 days, however it seems those who contracted the virus prior to that 0-2 win at Crystal Palace are now ready to return.
Here’s a video update from Sky Sports News:
Keith Downie has also stated that he is NOT aware of any appeal from Newcastle United to have the match postponed – something that we’d already done this time last week in a bid to stop our trip to Aston Villa.
Although it’s hardly conclusive, another telling sign that the game is set to go ahead was the fact our official Twitter page announced that Darren England will referee Saturday’s game at St James’, suggesting pre-match preparations are going ahead as usual.
With the club yet to release any pictures of today’s training session, we must wait and see just what sort of side Steve Bruce will be able to field against Bilic’s Baggies come Saturday afternoon.
It may not be pretty, but at least it looks set to be game on!
Follow us on Twitter (@NUFCBlogcouk) and on Facebook HERE
West Brom have already lost 5 first team players through Covid19 this season, no matches off. Pretty hard to justify Newcastle postponing if they don’t have a minimum of more than that out.
Jonathan(Quote)