Steve Bruce reveals why he left Jack Colback out of his Newcastle United squad

The club submitted its 25-man squad to the Premier League last week – and five senior players didn’t to make the cut.

Rolando Aarons and Achraf Lazaar missed out along with Colback, Jamie Sterry and Henri Saivet.

Bruce had brought Colback, frozen out by Rafa Benitez two years ago, in from the cold at St James’s Park.

And United’s head coach had been keen to find a place in his squad for the midfielder, having managed him at Sunderland earlier in his career.

The club is now looking to move the quintet out, most likely on loan, to clubs where transfer windows remains open.

“Management’s hard,” said Bruce. “The boy Murphy scores after two minutes on his debut last week. Jack Colback, I’ve known a long, long time. I hope they can get fixed up, I really do. In the next few weeks, there are a few windows still open.

“Today, I have to leave out two who won’t travel (to Norwich), so I always have to make decisions, and those are what you get judged on.”

Colback, according to Bruce, was squeezed out of the squad by the deadline day arrivals of Andy Carroll and Emil Krafth.

“We signed two players late on,” said Bruce. “If we hadn’t brought them in, then Jack was likely to be in the squad. I did explain that to Jack. But yeah, it was difficult.”Asked if there was any interest in those players left out of his squad, Bruce said: “There have been one or two sniffs.

“It’s ludicrous that all of Europe is still open. Some clubs are maybe going to have to sell a player they don’t want to.”

Colback spent last season on loan at Nottingham Forest. The 29-year-old, signed as a free agent in 2014 after his contract at Sunderland expired, has a year left on his contract at St James’s Park.