‘We hope’ - Fresh Newcastle United injury ‘complaint’ confirmed as ‘brilliant’ £12m man comes in

Newcastle currently have a number of injury concerns after finishing their pre-season campaign with a 4-0 win over Villarreal and Sela Cup success at St James’ Park. Joe Willock, Emil Krafth and Fabian Schar missed the match due to injury as expected while Javier Manquillo was also a late withdrawal.

Explaining Manquillo’s absence, Howe told The Gazette: “Just a slight groin complaint with Javier. We hope it’s nothing serious.”

In Manquillo’s absence, Jacob Murphy slotted in at right-back for the Villarreal match and made the most of the opportunity by opening the scoring after just six minutes with a powerful strike into the right side of the goal.

Murphy has played at right-back before for Newcastle but is more regularly found in a more advanced position on the right wing.

And Howe was impressed with Murphy’s attitude and performance to help The Magpies end pre-season on a high.

“Jacob did that role for us last year, wherever I played him, whether it be left, right, on the wing, various positions, he was excellent for us and his attitude absolutely epitomised the squad,” he added.

“A brilliant team player and I thought he was outstanding today in that right-back position and he had no complaints doing it so full credit to him.”

Murphy is unlikely to feature at right-back for Newcastle any time soon heading into the competitive season with Kieran Trippier first-choice right-back and Tino Livramento set to join the club.

United start their season at home to Aston Villa on Saturday (5:30pm kick-off).