11 Newcastle United players from first team squad miss the Al-Hilal friendly | OneFootball

The Newcastle United players are taking on Al-Hilal on Thursday.

With competitive football starting again in only 13 days time, Eddie Howe now stepping up preparations for the restart.

Newcastle facing Bournemouth in the League Cup on Wednesday 21 December, then on Boxing Day it is away at Leicester for the Premier League kicking off again.

At 7pm (4pm UK time) the Newcastle team v Al-Hilal was announced, along with subs.

Newcastle team v Al-Hilal:

Loris Karius, Javier Manquillo, Jamaal Lascelles (c), Sven Botman, Jamal Lewis, Jonjo Shelvey, Joelinton, Joe Willock, Jacob Murphy, Allan Saint-Maximin, Chris Wood

Subs:

Mark Gillespie, Dan Burn, Alex Murphy, Sean Longstaff, Elliot Anderson, Joe White, Miguel Almirón, Ryan Fraser, Jay Turner-Cooke, Lewis Miley, Dylan Stephenson

In total, I counted 11 Newcastle United players missing in total.

Kieran Trippier, Fabian Schar, Nick Pope, Bruno Guimaraes and Callum Wilson are of course missing due to World Cup commitments, four of them still out there and Fabian Schar set to rejoin the squad at a later date.

Emil Krafth is of course long-term injured and won’t be seen again until next season in competitive matches, trusting that his recovery goes well.

Alexander Isak is working his way back to full fitness but we already knew he wouldn’t feature in this friendly.

Craig Hope of The Mail has reported that Matt Targett and Karl Darlow miss out tonight through illness.

That then leaves us with Paul Dummett and Matt Ritchie, they have both had injury issues this season and seemingly those are continuing.

I think this all just illustrates the need for as big a squad as possible and why I think we will see minimal departures in January.

Thursday 8 December 2022 – Al-Hilal v Newcastle (5pm (UK time)) Friendly – Watch on NUFC TV

Saturday 17 December 2022 – Newcastle v Rayo Vallecano (12.30pm) Friendly

Wednesday 21 December 2022 – Newcastle v Bournemouth (7.45pm) League Cup fourth round

Monday 26 December 2022 – Leicester v Newcastle (3pm) Amazon Prime

Saturday 31 December 2022 – Newcastle v Leeds (3pm)

Tuesday 3 January 2023 – Arsenal v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 7 January 2023 – Sheffield Wednesday v Newcastle (6pm) BBC 1 and BBC i-player

Sunday 15 January 2023 – Newcastle v Fulham (2pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 21 January 2023 – Crystal Palace v Newcastle (5.30pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 4 February 2023 – Newcastle v West Ham (5.30pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 11 February 2023 – Bournemouth v Newcastle (5.30pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 18 February 2023 – Newcastle v Liverpool (5.30pm) Sky Sports