Lee Clark has revealed which two Newcastle United players he is hoping will be fit and available to play against AC Milan in tonight’s game.
Newcastle need as many players back as they can to take on Milan in the deciding Champions League group game which could have huge knock-on effects for the rest of the season.
The former Newcastle man has been speaking on talkSPORT about how he is hoping that Callum Wilson and Sean Longstaff will both be starting against Milan tonight.
Longstaff and Wilson could provide fresh legs for Newcastle against Milan
The Newcastle duo have been out for a few weeks now and missed the last five games in which the same outfield players started every single time.
They have only recently made their return to the team after coming off the bench against Tottenham in a 4-1 defeat, but they could now be ready to start in one of Newcastle’s biggest games in recent memory.
Clark is very hopeful that, despite Longstaff not being pictured in training yesterday, the pair will be named in the teamsheet before the game, giving Alexander Isak and Lewis Miley a much needed break.
Anthony Gordon and Martin Dubravka were also nowhere to be seen in yesterday’s session, but again Clark was hopeful that this was just to give them some extra rest before facing Milan.
On talkSPORT, Clark said: “The biggest factor for me will come at 7 o’clock when that team sheet gets announced. We are hoping that the 20 or 30 minutes that Longstaff and Wilson got down at Tottenham means they can start tonight. Fingers crossed for that.
“There are reports up here that Dubravka and Anthony Gordon missed training yesterday, whether that’s to rest them up [I don’t know], as I can’t imagine they are doing a lot of training anyway between games, it’s thick and fast every three days. So that’s the biggest thing for me, when that teamsheet hits down at 7 o’clock, who is in it.”
Newcastle’s injury crisis is slowly resolving
Just a few weeks ago it felt like Newcastle were in crisis mode with all of their injuries and it felt like it was a never-ending cycle of players dropping down every game.
While Dubravka and Nick Pope have very recently picked up knocks, the injury problem does seem to be starting to resolve.
Dan Burn, Harvey Barnes and Sven Botman have all been predicted to be brought back into the fold very soon, though we’re still waiting on confirmation on when exactly they will be making their returns.
It’s all good news for Eddie Howe, though, who can finally have some rotation options in his starting 11 as the games just keep on coming.
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