'Close' - Eddie Howe hints new Newcastle United signing could feature in Japan

The 25-year-old defender joined Newcastle as a free agent following his release from AFC Bournemouth. Kelly has trained with head coach Eddie Howe and his new team-mates but has missed The Magpies’ opening two official pre-season friendly matches against SpVgg Unterhaching and Hull City this month.

Explaining Kelly’s absence from matches so far, Howe told The Gazette: “With Lloyd it's just a case of building his training load, we train differently.

“There are differences and emotional feelings when you join a new club and you should probably give players a little bit longer to expose them to the really hard yards that will do in pre-season and they need to do for the new seasons. Everyone wants to see him, I want to see him but we've got to manage that process right.”

Howe hinted Kelly could be involved in the two matches in Japan this coming week as The Magpies take on Urawa Red Diamonds at the Saitama Stadium on July 31 (11:30am kick-off BST) and Yokohama F. Marinos at the Japan National Stadium on August 3 (11am kick-off BST).

Midfielders Joe Willock, Sean Longstaff and Joe White also missed the trip to Hull but could feautre in Japan.

“We're in the process of trying to manage pre-season so we've got players at different stages and they're training and looking good,” Howe revealed. “They're close to playing and some of those players were close to playing [against Hull] but we decided not to with the majority of those and hopefully in Japan they will play some part.”