Newcastle will be hoping to build on their fourth place finish from last season while juggling Champions Leaguefootball while Aston Villa will be competing in the Conference League after finishing seventh last term.
Both sides head into the new season with several injury concerns with a number of players already ruled out for the coming weeks.
Here is the injury list for both Newcastle United and Aston Villa as it stands heading into the opening day of the season...
![Schar didn’t feature for Newcastle in their final three pre-season matches after picking up a hamstring injury against Chelsea last month. The Swiss centre-back has only just returned to training with Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe appearing optimistic regarding the player’s potential involvement this weekend.
“As we currently stand, yes he will be [involved],” the Newcastle boss said in his pre-match press conference. “He has trained this week, he has trained well. He was back with us on Tuesday so he’s had a full week’s training.”](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2023/08/09/16/GettyImages-1554596346.jpg?trim=0,37,0,36&width=800)
1. Newcastle United: Fabian Schar (hamstring) - doubt
Schar didn’t feature for Newcastle in their final three pre-season matches after picking up a hamstring injury against Chelsea last month. The Swiss centre-back has only just returned to training with Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe appearing optimistic regarding the player’s potential involvement this weekend. “As we currently stand, yes he will be [involved],” the Newcastle boss said in his pre-match press conference. “He has trained this week, he has trained well. He was back with us on Tuesday so he’s had a full week’s training.”
2. Newcastle United: Javier Manquillo (groin) - out
Right-back Javier Manquillo missed the Sela Cup matches due to a groin complaint with Howe later confirming that he would miss the opening day with Kieran Trippier and Tino Livramento the only two available right-backs heading into the new Premier League season. “Just a slight groin complaint with Javier,” Howe told The Gazette. “We hope it’s nothing serious.”
![Emil Krafth is still ‘four-to-six weeks’ away from returning to full training for Newcastle following a serious ACL injury picked up last August. It means the injury will end up side-lining the right-back for over 12 months as he looks to make a return to first-team action sooner rather than later.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Howe said: “[Krafth] is doing well. As you have with serious injuries like the one he’s had, you have good days, bad days, he’s had good spells and bad spells where he hasn’t felt so good.
“But he’s slowly coming into a really good feeling in his body where he’s worked incredibly hard.”](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2023/05/12/14/GettyImages-1411141579%20%281%29.jpg?crop=3:2&width=800)
3. Newcastle United: Emil Krafth (knee) - out
Emil Krafth is still ‘four-to-six weeks’ away from returning to full training for Newcastle following a serious ACL injury picked up last August. It means the injury will end up side-lining the right-back for over 12 months as he looks to make a return to first-team action sooner rather than later. Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Howe said: “[Krafth] is doing well. As you have with serious injuries like the one he’s had, you have good days, bad days, he’s had good spells and bad spells where he hasn’t felt so good. “But he’s slowly coming into a really good feeling in his body where he’s worked incredibly hard.”
4. Newcastle United: Joe Willock (hamstring) - out
Joe Willock has been out since pulling his hamstring in United’s penultimate match of the 2022-23 campaign against Brighton & Hove Albion back in May. After missing all of pre-season, the 23-year-old is still facing at least another month on the sidelines following a slight set-back. “Joe has worked hard through the summer after a really bad hamstring injury,” Howe explained. “It was a serious injury to his hamstring where he missed the back end of last season and now in pre-season as he’s working back he’s just felt a little bit of discomfort in his hamstring, not necessarily another pull to the area but just a discomfort. “So we’ve just had to work him down again and he’s in the process now of building back up. We’ll probably miss him for the first group of games before the international break.”