Newcastle United striker out for nine weeks - but 'positive' update on midfielder

Wilson hasn’t played for Newcastle since the final game of last season - a 4-2 win at Brentford - after sustaining a back injury during the training camp at Adidas’ Herzogenaurach HQ nine weeks ago.

Initially, Howe hoped Wilson would return “a couple of games” into the new campaign, however the 32-year-old’s recovery is taking longer than expected. He will miss Sunday’s Premier League trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers and is a doubt for the visit to Fulham a week later.

“Callum hasn’t had a setback but he’s a little bit behind where we wanted him to be,” Howe admitted. “We envisaged that he might be training at this moment but he’s not there yet.

“There’s no injury or re-injury, it’s just a case of him not feeling like he can push that final part [of the recovery] at the moment but hopefully in the coming weeks he will be but it’s not going to be a long-term problem.”

Meanwhile, Howe revealed Willock is progressing quickly in his recovery from a thigh injury.

Willock made his first start since April in the Carabao Cup against Nottingham Forest on August 28 and opened the scoring just 18 seconds in. However, his evening was cut short in the 15th minute.

On Tuesday evening, the 25-year-old uploaded a video to Instagram of him being put through his paces - running and sprinting with the ball at his feet.

Howe said: “We have seen him in training this week, albeit not full training, but he's been with the group so positive for sure.”