Newcastle United pre-season leak sheds light on plans

The club has only announced three pre-season fixtures so far. United will take on Benfica in Lisbon on July 26, and that fixture at the Estadio da Luz is followed by home games against Atalanta and Athletic Bilbao on July 29 and 30.

Newcastle club had been due to take part in the Ohio Cup tournament in the USA, but the tournament was cancelled. Instead, United are planning to visit to Austria for a training camp next month.

And Austrian club FC Pinzgau Saalfelden have revealed that they will host a low-key fixture at their 1,500-capacity home between Newcastle and 1860 on July 15. Neither club has confirmed the game.

Howe spoke about the cancellation of the high-profile Ohio Cup last month. United’s head coach said: “Our pre-season plans are without a tour at the moment.

“We plan on adding one to the schedule. We’re going through various options at the moment to try and find the right place to go with everything that we want in that seven to 10 days, so we’re trying to figure out what we do next.

"It’s a shame, very disappointed the tour was cancelled, as that had been in the pipeline for a long, long time. So it’s a huge disappointment to see it cancelled at the last minute.”

Newcastle kick off the 2022/23 Premier League campaign with a home game against newly-promoted Nottingham Forest on August 6.

United’s players are due to report back for the start of pre-season training on Friday.