Former West Ham United man missing from training ahead of imminent Newcastle United transfer exit

Ashby has made his first appearances for Newcastle’s first-team in pre-season having joined from West Ham United in January. The 21-year-old, who scored a late winner in the 2-1 friendly victory at Rangers last month, is now set to be loaned out to Swansea City ahead of the upcoming season.

Swans boss Michael Duff confirmed medicals had been booked for three new signings to be made this week with Ashby understood to be one of them.

The right-back was missing from Newcastle United’s training gallery posted on Tuesday and some eagle-eyed Swansea fans believe Ashby has already started training at Swansea after the Championship side posted an image of Azeem Abdulai which featured the arm of an unidentified player whose tattoos matched those of Ashby.

In addition to Ashby, there was also no sign of Joe Willock or Fabian Schar in Newcastle’s training gallery. Willock has been nursing a hamstring problem since the back end of last season while Schar was forced off with a hamstring problem in the Premier League Summer Series match against Chelsea.

Goalkeepers Nick Pope and Loris Karius also weren’t pictured in the club’s training gallery along with Dan Burn and Callum Wilson.

While a player not featuring in the club gallery is not a guarantee that they did not train on any given day, in Ashby’s case, it has been confirmed that he did not train with the Newcastle squad earlier this week.