New exit hint arrives as Steve Bruce signing admits his time may be up at Newcastle United

Jeff Hendrick believes he's probably played his last game for Newcastle United.

The 30-year-old will be back on Tyneside for pre-season after returning from a loan spell with QPR, however he's admitted there's a "strong possibility" he won't play for the club again.

He realises he's slipped way down the midfield pecking order and feels the club will only strengthen even further this summer, meaning a summer move away will be on the cards if he can't force his way back into Howe's plans over pre-season.

In all honesty, that seems highly unlikely. Not only have we been backed to sign another midfielder this summer, Hendrick is currently behind the likes of Guimaraes, Shelvey, Joelinton, Willock and Longstaff in the existing squad.

He's believed to be on around £50,000 per week, as his free agent move from Burnley allowed him to sign a lucrative deal under Steve Bruce two years ago. This could cause problems for interested clubs - no Championship side would match that pay packet - so we'll have to hope he values game time elsewhere and getting his career back on track above earnings!

When asked by the Irish Independent if he's played his last game for the club, here's what the had to say:

“I would say it’s a possibility, things can change, football is crazy like that, but it’s a strong possibility.

“I have two years left at Newcastle. For me, I’m ready to go back on July 1st and start training and if I need to go and get games, I will do that.

"It’s something I want to do, I always want to play games and I’ll wait and see.

“I don’t know if it will be a fresh start. Newcastle have done really well and brought some good players in and I can admit their midfield is very strong with the additions in January.

"I’m not the club, I’m not doing the buying or whatever, but I’d imagine they will strengthen the whole squad again in the summer.

"For me it’s about being realistic and being prepared that I might need to go somewhere else for games.”

“I’m at the age where I want to keep playing and keep going with the international side.

“It wouldn’t be beneficial for me to hang around and do what I did at the start of the year.

“It was from the November to January window where I didn’t play for two-and-a-half months, so I knew I needed to go and play games because I knew I couldn’t go from November to March without getting enough game-time. It would have been difficult for the manager [Republic of Ireland’s Stephen Kenny] here to justify playing me.

 “It was the strangest season for me at club level, with the lack of game-time I had but to come in and have the confidence in me to still perform was brilliant, I just tried to repay him [Stephen Kenny] with performances.”