There were 23 Newcastle United players on duty at Ashton Gate on Wednesday night as United lost 4-1 to Bristol City.
In a World Cup year, especially with such an extended tournament this time, it is always going to cause extra disruption. Players giving extra time off if involved in the World Cup.
The start of the Premier League season moved back an extra week to help clubs and players deal with the fact that the 2026 World Cup finals lasted almost six weeks this summer.
The Newcastle United team v Bristol City: Ewen Jaouen (Nick Pope 46), Lewis Hall (Dylan Charlton 90), Sven Botman, Fabian Schär (Alex Murphy 20), Harvey Barnes, Sean Steur, Anthony Elanga (Matheos Ferreira 74), Jacob Murphy (c) (Leo Shahar 82), Joe Willock (Mason Miley 90), Jacob Ramsey, Sean Neave (Park Seung-soo 56)
Subs not used: Aidan Harris, Anthony Munda, Miodrag Pivaš, Trevan Sanusi, Rory Finneran
So a squad of 23 travelled to Ashton Gate but it was the 11 Newcastle United players who were unavailable that ended up a huge topic of debate, especially with that final scoreline.
These were the 11 Newcastle United players who couldn’t be involved on Wednesday night:
Joelinton, Wissa, Thiaw, Osula, Livramento, Woltemade, Burn, Bruno, Lewis Miley, Toure, Bamba
As well as the impact of the World Cup, Eddie Howe and NUFC have been impacted by players coming back from injury and building up fitness. Plus Aladji Bamba signed only days ago.
After last weekend’s Gateshead match, Eddie Howe gave this information on four currently unavailable players.
“Will Osula just has a tight groin, we think he will be fine in a week or so.”
“Tino Livramento will be around the start of the season we think. He had an operation, so he is probably the most longer term one but he should be back for the start of the season, fingers crossed.”
“Lewis Miley is making really good progress, we think he will be back in La Manga to train.”
“Joelinton is doing really well. He is running and we are just building up his fitness slowly, so he builds his robustness back.”
The seven pre-season friendlies have a clear split.
The first three in a week and a half, then a week and a half that will be mostly spent in La Manga at a training camp, then the final four friendlies against more high profile opposition crammed into the last couple of weeks of pre-season.
In reality it was always going to be this way, the team that will be on the pitch for that final quartet of preparation matches will be very different to those that have lined up so far. Here’s hoping the scorelines and especially the performances have a very different look as well.
The last thing Eddie Howe needs is more injuries and concerns on Wednesday night when Fabian Schar, who has just returned from long-term injury, was forced off after only around 20 minutes of the Bristol City defeat.
Club interviewer: “The one player who didn’t come through too long of the game was Fabian Schar. He came off early, he walked off, is that an encouraging sign?”
Eddie Howe: “Yeah, I think it is an encouraging sign. I’m not quite sure what the injury is. I don’t think Fab is entirely sure himself. He felt a bit of tightness in his groin and it was nagging him as the game went on. He had to come off and that was a blow for us because two such good distributors of the ball, Sven and Fabi together, but Alex [Murphy] did well when he came one. But obviously that meant a reshuffle with a left footer playing on the right side.”
Newcastle United matches:
Saturday 18 July 2026
Newcastle United 3 Darlington 0 (Willock, Osula, Neave with the goals)
Saturday 25 July 2026
Gateshead 1 Newcastle United 1 (An own goal giving United the draw)
Wednesday 29 July 2026
Bristol City 4 Newcastle United 1 (Harvey Barnes with the ‘consolation’ goal)
Saturday 8 August 2026
Valencia v Newcastle friendly 9pm local time (8pm UK time)
Wednesday 12 August 2026
Newcastle v Everton pre-season friendly with 5.15pm kick-off at Murrayfield.
Saturday 15 August 2026
Newcastle United v Bayer Leverkusen friendly at St James’ Park, 3pm.
Sunday 16 August 2026
Newcastle United v Strasbourg friendly at St James’ Park, 4pm.
Sunday 23 August 2026
Newcastle v Liverpool 4.30pm – United’s first Premier League match of the season
Wednesday 26 August 2026
Carabao Cup second round match, opposition and time TBC (Draw will be made in second week of August after first round matches have been played)
Saturday 29 August 2026
Spurs v Newcastle (5.30pm) Sky Sports
Tuesday 1 September 2026
Premier League transfer window closes at 11pm.
Saturday 5 September 2026
Newcastle v Bournemouth 12.30pm TNT Sports
Monday 14 September 2026
Leeds v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports
(Please note, should either club reach the Carabao Cup third round and be scheduled to play against a club participating in this season’s UEFA Champions League, the match will revert to Saturday 12 September and take place at 12:30pm)
Saturday 19 September 2026
Newcastle v Hull (3pm) No live TV