Newcastle United call up 'talented' 18-year-old against former club Wolves after fresh injury blow confirmed
Newcastle United team news: Eddie Howe made four changes to his side for the match at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Newcastle United are looking to claim a fourth straight Premier League win as they visit Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday afternoon.
Despite sitting rock bottom of the Premier League, 15 points from safety, Wolves head into the game in decent form themselves having gone four games unbeaten in all competitions. Prior to that, they had lost 12 games in a row.
Newcastle head into the game following a 2-0 Carabao Cup semi-final first leg defeat to Manchester City at St James’ Park on Tuesday night. That match saw Jacob Murphy forced off in the first half with a hamstring issue.
The winger is one of four changes made by Eddie Howe for the match at Molineux.
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Newcastle United confirmed team news
Kieran Trippier, Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes and Nick Woltemade return to the starting line-up while Lewis Miley, Jacob Ramsey, Yoane Wissa drop to the bench and Jacob Murphy misses out entirely due to injury.
NUFC XI v Wolves: Pope; Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Hall; Tonali, Guimaraes, Joelinton; Barnes, Gordon, Woltemade
Subs: Ramsdale, Wissa, Elanga, Willock, A.Murphy, Ramsey, Shahar, Neave, Miley
18-year-old called-up to bench against former club
In Murphy’s absence, Howe has called upon 18-year-old full-back Leo Shahar to the bench for the sixth time in a competitive first-team match.
Shahar is yet to make his competitive debut for Newcastle but has featured in friendly matches and trained alongside the first-team, having caught the eye of Howe.
Shahar joined Newcastle’s academy from Wolves back in 2023.
On Shahar’s involvement in the first-team, Howe explained: “Leo is another talented young player here. I think he possesses the ability to play both sides so left-back and right-back, he's done both for us.
“He has trained with us intermittently for about a season depending on our numbers."He is an England youth international, highly rated, really good athletically, so he is in and around it and he is someone we would certainly trust having trained with us for a long period of time.”