Early team news from Eddie Howe - Official fitness update on 9 Newcastle players

Today marked Eddie Howe's first press conference of the season and fitness was a key subject on the agenda.

What we do know is that Wilson, Botman, Lascelles L.Miley and Targett will miss out tomorrow, however, there's good news on Willock, Schar, a 'fully fit' Pope and Tonali; who is fit and 'ready to start' when his ban ends later this month.

Here's Howe's general update on injuries and fitness, followed by comments on certain individuals:

"We are definitely in a better position than we were at the back end of last season. Nick Pope is fully fit, Willock is in a better place, but not 100% match fit. But he is on the road to being the Willock we know and love. Long-term injuries like Miley, and Wilson, are still out but players are coming back. We are in a much better place(than we were at the end of last season)."

Howe on Callum Wilson - "Callum will miss the first few games of the season. He’s making really good progress. He really feels good and wants to push a bit faster, but we’re just trying to manage him."

Howe on Fabian Schar - "We're hopeful Fabian will be okay. He felt the impact of the tackle (against Brest last weekend) earlier in the week but we're hopeful he will be fine."

Howe on Joe Willock - "Willock is in a better place, but still not 100%. But he is on the road to being the Willock we know and love"

Howe on Sandro Tonali - "He'll be in a position to start games. Physically, he's very fit, he's in a really good place but he just hasn't had the matches and the game sharpness that you can only really get from games.

“He has handled himself really well in this period, I am sure he has had some hard days. He has trained really well and has been a great teammate. I know how focused and excited he is for his return. Again, another huge thing for me to say is thank you to the Newcastle United fans. The way they’ve looked after him and for how they’ve dealt with him socially. I think it’s been an incredible response and that will only help him when he returns.”

Matt Targett is back training having been out for over eight months. There's no date as to when he could return to action, but he's back training with the squad.