Eddie Howe reveals 'open' Bruno Guimaraes communication after Newcastle United injury comeback

Newcastle United’s head coach planned to take Bruno Guimaraes off at the hour-mark on Saturday to protect the midfielder, who was making his comeback from a hamstring problem.

However, Howe kept Guimaraes on the pitch in the Premier League game, which ended 1-1, until the 71st minute.

“Great to see him back,” Howe told NUFC TV. He’s a massive player for us. I thought he did very well when you consider he’d had minimal training time with us, only two days.

"I planned to play him for 60 minutes. I played him a little bit longer, because I wanted to keep him on the pitch. But then I had to sort of have a word with myself, and try and protect him, and get him off. Delighted. Hopefully, he’s come through OK.”

Guimaraes had suffered the injury in the club's 3-3 home draw against Manchester City in August, but he put it down to tiredness, and the 24-year-old wasn’t scanned until after the following game, the 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Tranmere Rovers at Prenton Park.

"I was injured in the Man City game,” said Guimaraes. "I tried to play in the Tranmere game.

"When I needed to run, I felt it a lot. For me, I thought I was just tired – and I didn't know I was even injured. After the Tranmere game, I spoke to the doctor, and I wanted a scan.

"When we saw the scan, we thought it (the injury) was small, but it was big.

"When you’re injured, you’re resting the muscle, and it’s always difficult to know what’s happening. But now the most important thing is I’m fit."

Newcastle had “open” communication with Brazil about the injury ahead of their friendlies against Ghana and Tunisia in France.

Speaking last week, Howe said: “We’ve been in contact with their medical team. We’ve had really good communication between both parties.

"They’re obviously very interested in Bruno’s situation, and how he is, so there’s been open communication between us and them.”