Steve Bruce gives Covid-19 update at Newcastle United ahead of Leeds United game

Bruce’s side beat West Bromwich Albion 2-1 at St James’s Park yesterday.

The game followed an outbreak of coronavirus cases at the club which led to the closure of the training ground for more than a week and the postponement of last week’s fixture against Aston Villa.

Three players who had tested positive for the virus late last month – one of them was Isaac Hayden – were in Bruce’s starting XI yesterday.

A number of players were not involved – Bruce revealed before the game that he would be without a “big chunk” of his squad due to infections – but more could return for Wednesday night’s game against Leeds United following another round of testing today.

“We’re hoping that we get a couple of negative results – and a couple of more players (back),” said head coach Bruce.

“We’ll see. We’ve still got far too many at this particular moment. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

"The last two (tests), we’ve been negative, so let’s hope we’ve caught it, and got rid of it, but, as I keep saying, the decision to shut us down when it was ripping through us was key to us playing today.”

Allan Saint-Maximin, Ryan Fraser, Jamaal Lascelles, Federico Fernandez, Javier Manquillo and Fabian Schar were not involved against West Brom, and Hayden – who had been bed-ridden for 10 days – filled in in defence.

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