Howe handed three 'concerns', Tonali lift and double boost ahead of Hull City trip

According to The Chronicle, Newcastle United trio Lloyd Kelly, Sean Longstaff and Tino Livramento are fitness 'concerns' heading into tomorrow's pre-season friendly at Hull City and Sunday's trip to Japan.

Howe told the media last week that he was “just being protective" over Kelly, but the former Bournemouth defender suffered three separate injuries last season and sat out 17 games for the Cherries.

Livramento is still stepping up his return to full fitness after two ankle injuries meant for a stop-start end to 2023/24, where he was forced to sit out our final two games of the season. As for Longstaff, he appeared in last week's 3-1 win against SpVgg Unterhaching, but has been playing through the pain barrier with regular injections in his foot. It makes you wonder if this issue still hasn't totally settled if he's a 'concern' heading into tomorrow's game.

Joe Willock is another being eased back after a lack of pre-season last summer and recurring Achilles issues blighted his 2023/24 campaign. Hopefully we see him in action at the MKM tomorrow, but there'll be no Callum Wilson (back) or Lewis Miley (broken foot) after injuries ended their pre-season early.

On a slightly more positive note, Fabian Schar and Miguel Almiron both reported back for training today after extended breaks and some of our first-team stars were in action on Wednesday afternoon, where Newcastle United took on Scott Parker's Burnley in a behind-closed-doors friendly.

The result of the fixture is still not known, but it's emerged that Sandro Tonali did play - and 'played well' according to The Times - in a welcome boost to Howe and the Italian himself. The terms of his ban mean the 24-year-old won't feature at Hull tomorrow or in either of our fixtures in Japan, but he will still travel with the squad.

Tonali was unable to feature in last week's 3-1 win in Germany, but it's a welcome boost for our £55m man to get some much needed minutes at the Gawthorpe Hall training ground, with Tonali eligible to return for our third game of the new season - a home clash with Spurs - following a 10-month suspension for gambling.

Elsewhere, Sven Botman is running again and is back doing some light work with the ball, but both he and Jamaal Lascelles will be eased in slowly after suffering serious ACL injuries last season.