After what happened to Yoane Wissa back at the end of August, it would be understandable if Eddie Howe hoped that none of his players went on international duty for the rest of 2025.
The £55m deadline day signing immediately jetted off to international duty with DR Congo after putting pen to paper with us, and subsequently suffered a knee injury that has ruled him out for playing for us ever since he signed.
And after the spate of injuries we’ve had to the likes of Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall, Howe and the fitness team will be taking the players welfare very seriously as the last international break of the year takes place as we speak.
So it’s no surprise to hear that one of our international Mags has returned to the first team squad to recuperate after he suffered a fitness scare whilst with his country…
Tonali takes early leave
Sandro Tonali has withdrawn from the Italian national team after a fitness concern, heading straight back to the North East to make sure he’s fit for the resumption of club football with next Saturday.
This comes from Fabrizio Romano, who reports that Tonali is ‘not 100% fit’, leaving the camp along with Arsenal’s Ricardo Calafiori after playing the full 90 in a 2-0 win over Moldova on Thursday night.
This means that Tonali won’t be available for his country ahead of their final World Cup qualifier against Norway, where only a win by a nine goal margin would be enough to assure their automatic qualification for next summer’s event.
Our Milanese maestro will hopefully be fit and ready for our next league game against Manchester City at St James’ Park, with the update on his withdrawal leaving many to wonder if it’s a precautionary move or one that makes him an early doubt for next Saturday.
Who else is left to play on international duty?
With Tonali returning to the first team, and the likes of Joelinton, Anthony Gordon and Nick Pope having missed out on playing for their country this week due to respective fitness concerns, Howe will have a vast numbers of his stars available and relatively fresh.
But there’s still plenty of our players left to fulfil their international duties for the year.
Bruno Guimaraes has been a staple of Carlo Ancelotti’s side ever since the Italian took charge of Brazil, and you’d expect our captain to have a big role in their upcoming friendly against Tunisia on Tuesday.
German duo Nick Woltemade and Malick Thiaw have a big game against Group A rivals Slovakia on Monday night, where defeat would put the Germans in qualification jeopardy.
Dan Burn could also play against Albania for England, with Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa set to miss out with a calf issue.
We have qualities amongst the squad . Even with the current injuries we were still better than the likes of West Ham and Brentford . We lost to them because of strategy and fixed way of playing for a long time. All teams knew how we played and our weaknesses especially behind the left and right back who were too old and too slow
J(Quote)
J:
In the league we are not playing as if we are better than West Ham or Brentford, that’s the problem, quality means nothing if you don’t use it.
Joseph(Quote)
I think all these our bad away form will end if yoane wissa return
Henry(Quote)