Eddie Howe braced for double Newcastle United Premier League ban

Both players are just one yellow card away from serving a one-match Premier League ban. As per league rules, any player who is booked five times in the opening 19 must serve a one-match suspension.

Dan Burn became the first Newcastle to reach that threshold during the recent 3-1 win at Nottingham Forest. It meant the Blyth-born defender was unavailable for Monday’s 2-0 defeat at home to West Ham United.

And United boss Eddie Howe expects Joelinton and Schar to follow suit.

In order to avoid punishment, the pair must stay out of the referee’s book in the next seven matches, starting with Crystal Palace today and ending with Manchester United on December 30. After the 19-game mark - Tottenham Hotspur away on January 2 - the threshold changes to 10 bookings, 32 games and a two-match ban.

“It’s a difficult one to go into too much detail on that with the players as they need to be free,” Howe said. “Joey needs to be free to play his game and one of his biggest strengths is his ability to win the ball and cover every blade of grass and to be physical with his opponents.

“Part of the reason that I withdrew him on Monday was to make sure we had him for the next day. He is such a pivotal figure for us.

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“With those guys, the likelihood is that they will get booked before the cut off point but that’s why we have the squad.”

Elsewhere across the squad, Lewis Hall and Sandro Tonali are also close to the five-hame threshold having been booked three times this season. Bruno Guimaraes, Sean Longstaff and Kelly sit on two yellows, while Jacob Murphy, Joe Willock and Nick Pope are on one.