Newcastle United forward suffers fresh injury as triple blow confirmed

Joe Willock, Sean Longstaff and new signing Lloyd Kelly missed Saturday’s 2-0 friendly win at Hull City as they work on their fitness. But after travelling to Tokyo, Howe expects the trio to be involved at some stage this week.

The Magpies face Urawa Red Diamonds on Wednesday (11:30am kick-off BST) and Yokohama F. Marinos on Saturday (11am kick-off BST).

“I think you can expect to see them in one of the two games, probably more towards the Saturday, the second game, but all three trained today and trained well so they look in a good place,” Howe said.

Had three unexplained absences for the trip to Japan with forward Garang Kuol, midfielder Joe White and defender Alex Murphy not travelling having previously been involved in pre-season training at Adidas Headquarters in Germany.

“With Garang, we're waiting to see what happened with him,” Howe explained. “He's got a little bit of swelling in his knee so we're not sure if he'll be okay.

“Joe White is nursing a sore back so again we're assessing that one and Alex will be out for a couple of weeks with a hip problem.”  Newcastle will also welcome back Bruno Guimaraes this week with the midfielder joining up to train with the squad for the first time this pre-season. The Brazilian was given extra time off after the Copa America.

Kieran Trippier and Anthony Gordon are the only two senior players yet to return after representing England at Euro 2024.