‘Scary’ - Newcastle United star reacts to ‘fake news’ that ruled him out of Man Utd & Arsenal matches

A rumour was started by Twitter fake news specialist @FrancisChipp, better known as ‘Big Frank,’ that Longstaff had requested the month of November off at Newcastle to go travelling with his younger brother Matthew, who is currently recovering from a cruciate ligament injury.

Despite the rumour being taken in jest by the majority of Magpies’ fans given Newcastle’s hectic fixture schedule in the Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup in November, several high profile accounts picked up the story and relayed it as if it were true.

Fortunately, Longstaff sarcastically quashed the rumour ahead of Newcastle’s Champions League match at home to Borussia Dortmund as he told The Gazette with a smirk: “The gaffer wouldn’t give me the month off, so I was a bit gutted like!

“I don’t really know what to say, I think it’s a bit scary that one person can write something that’s not true and the amount of people that think it is true is nuts.

“My pals were telling me about it a bit so I got a bit of a chuckle out of it but it’s probably not a good thing that someone can start a rumour and then a week later everyone thinks it’s true!”

Longstaff has scored three goals already for Newcastle so far this season, including the last two matches at St James’ Park against Crystal Palace in the Premier League and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

He is set to line-up against Dortmund on Wednesday.