After being present at Steve Bruce’s first press conference in a fortnight this morning, Sky Sports’ Keith Downie has shared some potentially positive team news ahead of tomorrow’s clash with West Brom.
The North-East reporter says he’s “confident” that Newcastle will have “most of their key players available” for Saturday’s 3pm kick off, stating it may be a lack of options on the bench that’s the biggest issue.
Here’s what he had to say on Twitter in response to fears we’ll be down to the bare bones tomorrow:
“I’m confident they’ll have most of their key players available, but will just be short of options from the bench.“
Interestingly, Steve Bruce stated this morning that a few of our recently injured players are fit again, making me wonder if the likes of Allan Saint-Maximin, Ryan Fraser, Dwight Gayle and Jamaal Lascelles could return?
It’s difficult to say, however two players who look almost certain to start are Callum Wilson and Matt Ritchie, with the former confirming he’d trained on social media this week and the latter spotted doing an interview with NUFC TV from Benton yesterday.
Isaac Hayden is another who seems likely to return. He was believed to be one of the players missing through Covid at Crystal Palace, meaning he’ll have been free to train this week after serving his spell in self-isolation.
Time will tell, but it’d be a welcome boost if Bruce is able to field a slightly stronger side than first expected against the very beatable Baggies!
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