The Premier League season is only days away now.
Newcastle United will soon begin another huge campaign with a difficult looking opener against Aston Villa at St James’ Park on Saturday evening.
Eddie Howe’s squad have been put through their paces during pre-season, with the likes of Elliot Anderson and Lewis Miley emerging as standouts.
Still, there has been more concerning news in regards to another academy graduate.
Indeed, it seems Sean Longstaff has struggled for fitness during the summer in a slight concern to Howe.
Sean Longstaff has barely trained during pre-season
Having missed five of the last six Premier League games, Longstaff is still not quite up to speed, albeit he did play against Villareal on Sunday.
Speaking on the 25-year-old’s fitness, Howe told The Athletic: “He’s done very limited training in pre-season. He picked up a small niggle but when a niggle is enough to keep you out for two weeks it really can set you back.”
Longstaff is so important
The last time Newcastle played Saturday’s opponents, they were forced to do so without Longstaff starting and were duly thrashed 3-0 at Villa Park.
Described as an “integral” part of the team by Alan Shearer, Newcastle actually only won two of the five games they played without him last season.
With Sandro Tonali not certain to start, missing him for a game that could help set the tone for the season would be an unwelcome blow.
Fabian Schar is another dealing with a slight fitness concern too, so Howe could be forced to make changes from the team who played most of last season together.
Against a dangerous opponent like Villa, that is far from ideal.
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