Eddie Howe now confirms senior Newcastle United star still isn’t fully fit despite playing vs Barcelona

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Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe has admitted Jacob Murphy is still nursing an injury.

Murphy, who provided the assist from which Nick Woltemade scored his first Newcastle United goal against Wolves on Saturday, was dropped from the starting lineup alongside the German for Thursday night’s Champions League defeat to Barcelona. 

Both players eventually came on and were involved in Newcastle’s goal as Anthony Gordon pulled one back late on.

While Anthony Elanga played so well that Newcastle fans online were angry with his substitution just after the hour mark, dropping both Woltemade and Murphy from the start seemed harsh.

Eddie Howe, however, has suggested it was fitness related.

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Jacob Murphy suffering slight injury for Newcastle United

The Newcastle United manager was speaking after the game. 

He revealed that while it was a tough decision to drop Murphy, the fact that the Newcastle forward is still nursing his way through an Achilles problem played a big part in his thinking.

“He’s nursing an Achilles problem and we just want to keep the majority of the squad fit and available,” he said at his post-match press conference.

Anthony Elanga responds to Jacob Murphy’s injury

It would be fair to say that, prior to the Barcelona game, Elanga hadn’t really convinced in a Newcastle United shirt.

Admittedly, it’s been difficult for him. For most of his appearances thus far, Newcastle haven’t been playing with a striker for the Sweden star to feed off.

That was the case again on Thursday but it did not really matter for the former Nottingham Forest star. 

Elanga was brilliant for Newcastle against Barcelona and, on another day, could well have recorded two assists.

Though obviously disappointing not to have Murphy fully fit, Elanga proved he could step into his shoes on Thursday night.

It will be fascinating to see how he builds on this now. Murphy takes some replacing but, for the first time, Elanga proved he is perhaps up to that challenge.