Has Rafa Benitez made a decision on Freddie Woodman's Newcastle future?

The goalkeeper has been called up by Aidy Boothrody for the European Championship qualifiers against Holland and Latvia next month.

Woodman helped the Under-21s win the Toulon Tournament in the summer.

And the 21-year-old – who had a loan spell at Aberdeen last season – wants to play more competitive club games this season.

Pointing to the experiences of senior England goalkeepers Jordan Pickford and Jack Butland on loan, Woodman said: “I look at Pickford. He’s such a brilliant goalkeeper, and he’s done really well (at the World Cup).

"You’ve also got Butland and (Nick) Pope, who’ve been out on loan and got a lot of games.

“Hopefully, I can follow in their footsteps and get as many games as I can, learn from loads of different experiences and improve myself daily. I feel like that will get me to where I want to get to.”

However, United manager Rafa Benitez revealed earlier this month that Woodman wouldn't necessarily be loaned out this season, even though he also has Martin Dubravka, Karl Darlow and Rob Elliot at the club.

Asked about Woodman, Benitez said: “Still we have to decide about that.

“I think with the young players ... sometimes it’s better if they go on loan, but sometimes it’s better if they stay with you.

“The players can then train in the way you want them to train and they learn the things that you want to teach them. If they go on loan, sometimes it’s just to play, and that’s it.

“We have the Under-23s for them to play. Each case is different. Still, we have time and we will decide.

"We were in favour of sending Freddie on loan last year, which was good.

“But sometimes you want to keep players, like (Sean) Longstaff. He has had some teams asking for him, but he has been training with us.

“I told him ‘you’re training with us, you’re seeing how the senior players work, the pace and physicality of the game ... if you go to another team, maybe you will play, but the coaching will be different.

"If you stay here, and you’re not playing too much because we cannot give you minutes, fine. That’s your learning period here, and then you can go on loan and play’.

"We try to find the balance, but it depends on each player.”

Woodman – who has also had loan spells at Kilmarnock, Crawley Town and Hartlepool United –has two years left on his United contract.