Newcastle United pair withdraw from international duty as £20m star ruled out v Brentford

Newcastle United attacking midfielder Elliot Anderson has been forced to withdraw from the senior Scotland squad through injury.

The 20-year-old was called up by Steve Clarke for the first time for the Euro 2024 qualifier in Cyprus on Friday and the 150th anniversary match against England at Hampden next Tuesday. But as broken by the Daily Record, Anderson has returned to Tyneside for treatment after suffering an unspecified injury in training yesterday (Tuesday).

Clark has decided not to aggravate the issue by making him make the five-hour flight to Cyprus each way.

With Anderson still waiting for his first senior cap, it leaves the door open for England to swoop back in for the former Bristol Rovers loanee. Anderson had played for Scotland at multiple youth levels before he switched to England at under-19 level. He returned to play for the Scots at under-21.

Newcastle will now hope to have Anderson available for the visit of Brentford after the international break. While the Whitley Bay-born youngster hasn’t started a game this season, he has appeared in all four matches against Aston Villa, Manchester City, Liverpool and Brighton and Hove Albion.

United are already without a key midfielder in Joe Willock after Magpies’ head coach Eddie Howe revealed after the defeat at the Amex Stadium on Saturday that he had been ruled out for a further six weeks because of an Achilles problem.

Howe also said it was “unknown” if Sven Botman would return in time for Brentford. The Dutchman suffered an ankle injury against Liverpool and failed a late fitness test before his teammates set off to the South Coast on Friday.

Meanwhile, Alex Murphy withdrew from Republic of Ireland under-21s duty earlier this week.

In a statement released by Ireland on Monday morning, they revealed Murphy suffered an unspecified injury during the young Magpies’ 4-0 defeat to Manchester City under-21s on Saturday and was therefore unavailable.

The 19-year-old featured for Howe’s first-team during pre-season and particularly impressed in games versus Chelsea and Fiorentina. Against the former, Murphy was introduced as a left-back following an early injury at Fabian Schar.

And in the Switzerland international’s absence, Murphy lined up alongside Sven Botman as United beat Fiorentina 2-0 on his first senior start at St James’ Park.