Fresh Newcastle United injury blows confirmed ahead of Rangers trip

Newcastle’s first-team returned to pre-season training a week ago and have just played their first friendly match at Gateshead on Saturday afternoon. Eddie Howe’s side came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at the International Stadium.

But The Magpies’ squad was depleted by the absence of the players on international duty who had only returned to training on Friday. In addition, players such as Nick Pope (finger) and Joe Willock (hamstring) are nursing injuries carried over from the back end of last season.

Newcastle were also without Jacob Murphy and Jamaal Lascelles as the squad included a very youthful bench filled with Under-21s players.

Speaking after the friendly win, Howe revealed the extent of United’s injury situation.

“Jacob has a shoulder injury,” he said. “We don’t think it’s serious, we hope he’ll be back very soon; Jamaal has a tight muscle and we hope he’ll be back very soon.

“Nick Pope is doing well. He’s doing light handling now, so he’s made good progress from his finger injury and we hope he’ll be back available to play, in and around the America trip, maybe just after.

“Joe Willock is making good progress. He hasn’t trained with us yet but is on track to train with us in America.”

Newcastle’s next pre-season match sees them face Rangers at Ibrox on Tuesday night (7:45pm kick-off). Newcastle’s international players are expected to come back into the fold for that match though the injuries will have to wait.