Newcastle United in Dubai: Big Miguel Almiron update as Bruno Guimaraes’s trip ends

Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United squad got back to work in Dubai today after enjoying some time off ahead of the business end of the Premier League season.

With the 2022-23 campaign on pause until next weekend due to the international break, the Magpies jetted out from East Midlands Airport to the United Arab Emirates just hours after the 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest on Friday night.

There is a 17-day gap between Forest and the home clash against Manchester United on Sunday, April 2, so Howe granted his players a period of rest before resuming training.

“Immediately it’ll be a little bit of rest after an intense period of game, then we’ll get back to training and preparation for Manchester United,” said Howe. He then told BBC Newcastle: “I think we’re away for about five or six days. We’ll be training and making sure we’re fit and focused for the last part of the season.”

However, not all of Howe’s squad have been in Dubai during their free days. As widely publicised on Instagram, Bruno Guimaraes has been in the Maldives and Joelinton has been back in Brazil catching up with friends and family before his fiancée Thays Gondim gives birth.

Guimaraes has been spending time with his fiancée Ana Lidia Martins and left their resort earlier today (Wednesday, March 22). The Brazilian midfielder’s next destination could be to link up with his teammates, who are training at the Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex.

One player that has remained on Tyneside, however, is Miguel Almiron. The Paraguayan injured his thigh during training last Thursday, and an MRI scan revealed a diagnosis of six weeks. Almiron was back at the club’s Benton training base this morning and posted a photo of himself in the gym using the exercise bike with the caption: “Non-stop.”

Newcastle also visited Dubai in March last year. They trained at the same facilities and played a friendly against local club Gulf United, who are managed by former United defender Steven Taylor.

“It’s one of the best training arenas in the world,” said Howe. “First-class facilities, a world-class pitch and the facilities around the pitch are second to none.

“We took the boys in the altitude chamber which they really enjoyed – swimming pool, cryotherapy chambers – we utilised everything we could to help the players.

“It’s nice to expose the players to [the facilities]. When you want to really push the players hard physically, you need to have the highest level of recovery equipment to utilise, and we have that here.”

Whether or not Newcastle will partake in a friendly this time around is unconfirmed. It is understood Howe’s squad are due back from the Middle East on Friday.

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