Newcastle United handed major injury boost hours before Ipswich Town as £38m duo spotted at St James' Park

Botman returned to training ahead of Saturday’s Premier League match against Ipswich Town at St James’ Park and is back invovled in the Newcastle squad. Team news will be confirmed at 1:45pm.

Fabian Schar is also with the squad after being withdrawn in Newcastle’s 4-1 defeat at Aston Villa last time out with a hamstring issue. Botman hasn’t featured for the club since picking up a knee injury in the 2-0 Carabao Cup semi-final second leg win over Arsenal back in February.

Botman was thought to be close to a return before undergoing surgery that ultimately delayed his return to action. But now the defender is back in training and could get back on the pitch this afternoon.

Newcastle host Ipswich knowing a win would take them back up to third in the Premier League table. But anything other than a win for Ipswich on Saturday (3pm kick-off) would mathematically relegate them with four games still to play.

Sven Botman injury latest after training return

Botman has been sidelined for over 11 weeks with a knee injury that initially wasn’t suspected to be serious but ultimately required surgery. The 25-year-old has started just five games for Newcastle this season due to an ACL injury followed by his latest knee issue but reports from the club have been positive in recent weeks.

The defender has returned to training at Newcastle and will be pushing to return to the starting line-up before the end of the season.

But on Friday, Howe stressed that it was ‘still very early stages’ for the defender before including him in the matchday squad.

“Sven's trained well this week and it's been great to see him back on the grass,” Howe said. “So, yeah, really, really pleased with how he looked. It's still very early stages for him, but back training with the group is a big step.”

Fabian Schar hamstring injury

Schar has scored in each of Newcastle’s last two Premier League matches but was withdrawn after finding the net at Villa Park.

After the game Tindall said: “Fabi was feeling his hamstring in the game, so he felt it was the wise move to bring him off and to try and protect him, to make sure that hopefully he's okay for the remaining games.”

Although the Swiss defender hasn’t been spotted in training this week, Howe provided a small but promising update in his pre-match press conference.

He simply said: “Fabian, we hope will be okay [to play v Ipswich].”

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NUFC v Ipswich injury & team news

Ipswich sit 18th, 15 points adrift of West Ham United in 17th with five games left to play and significantly worse goal difference. Even if Ipswich were to pull of a surprise win at St James’ Park on Saturday, there’s a feeling that it would only prolong the inevitable.

Both teams head into the match with some injury concerns. Ipswich will be without Kalvin Phillips, Sammie Szmodics, Jaden Philogene, Arijanet Muric, Omari Hutchinson, Chiedozie Ogbene and Wes Burns. Boyhood Newcastle fan Leif Davis has also been denied a St James’ Park appearance due to suspension.

Newcastle’s absentee list isn’t quite as long with Lewis Hall and Jamaal Lascelles the only confirmed absentees. Lascelles will be looking to be back in contention before the end of the season after more than a year out with an ACL injury while Hall is targeting a pre-season return following foot surgery.

Newcastle United predicted line-up

Newcastle have named an unchanged line-up for each of their last seven Premier League.

“The team has been unchanged because the team's performed really well,” Howe said ahead of the match. “That was a difficult week, three games in six days. But there's certainly no fatigue for this game. So, I will pick what I think is the strongest team. It gives us the best chance to win the game.”

Predicted line-up v Ipswich: Pope; Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento; Tonali, Guimaraes, Willock; Murphy, Barnes, Isak

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