Newcastle United bombshell as first-team player frozen out by Eddie Howe

The winger – who hasn’t made a first-team appearance since last October, and has played just 311 minutes of Premier League football this season – has been told to train with the club’s Under-21 squad ahead of Sunday’s game at Wembley.

The Gazette understands that Fraser is unlikely to return to the squad this season – and that the club sees his future as being elsewhere.

Eddie Howe had last month described Fraser, under contract at St James’s Park until 2025, as a “valued member of the squad” when asked why he hadn’t been on the bench.

United’s head coach said: “No, he’s not injured, he’s training. He’s just got to keep training well and training hard.

"He’s a valued member of the squad. I know him better than anybody, I know what he’s capable of, so I’d love to see him back in a Newcastle shirt.”

Fraser joined Newcastle as a free agent in 2020. The Scotland international had opted not to sign a short-term contract extension allowing him to play for Bournemouth when the Premier League restarted following a hiatus for Covid-19 earlier that year.

The club, then managed by Howe, was relegated at the end of the delayed 2019/20 season, and Fraser addressed his decision not to play on after joining Newcastle.

Speaking at the time, Fraser said: "I never wanted it to end like that, from what we went through from start to finish.

“No-one saw that this virus would come. If this virus didn’t come, I would have played every game under my contract.

“Everyone’s got their opinions. I respect everyone’s opinion, good or bad. I wasn’t under contract, so I didn’t feel like I should play the games … (in case) I get an injury.

"Obviously, I wanted to help the team. I didn’t want them to go down. I feel like if I’d played, without sounding big-headed or big time, I like to think I would kept us up, which hurts even more.

"But I wasn’t under contract, so I didn’t actually do anything wrong, but I can see why people think that.”