Newcastle United transfer rumours: Magpies ‘leading race’ to sign Tottenham international, Toon target ‘as good as gone’ from current club

Shelvey – who scored against Liverpool last week – missed the 4-0 defeat to Manchester City with what was described as a “slight” injury, while Javier Manquillo was unwell.

“Javier Manquillo, unfortunately, was a very late drop out due to illness,” said head coach Eddie Howe.

“So that was a big problem for us. Emil Krafth was also unwell, so he took his place on the bench, but hadn’t trained for a week. Again, that was illness.

“Jonjo’s played a lot of football in a short space of time, having missed a long period, and we just felt that we had to be very, very careful with him for this game. We hope he’ll be back soon. I don’t think he’s got a long-term injury there.

“The players have put in a huge physical effort in the last two games, so we’re counting the cost of that at the moment. It’s a very intense period for us.”

“I think they’re going to be longer-term,” said Howe. “We don’t expect them back for the foreseeable future, unfortunately.

“Jamal’s a very strange one early in the game against Liverpool. I know he hadn’t had a lot of football, but that was a really big blow for us at the beginning of that match, and Feddy, it looks like it’s going to be around the same length of time.”