£25m man in danger of Newcastle United omission as warrior returns

Joelinton was unavailable for Newcastle United’s 4-0 win at Ipswich Town on Saturday. Willock was promoted into the starting XI ahead of both Sean Longstaff and Lewis Miley to play alongside Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali in midfield.

It was the 25-year-old’s 14th appearance of the campaign. That is already four more than last season after he struggled to overcome a long-term Achilles problem.

“To keep Joe fit for a sustained spell is now really important,” admitted Howe. “I think he has done the hard work to get back fit after a really difficult time for him, he’d been missing for a long time.

“So, for him to be back to his very best levels will take a period of regular games but I think he is moving in the right direction now so the last thing he needs is any kind of setback at this stage. He’s such an important player, brings us unique qualities and we want to keep him available.”

Willock will be keen to retain his place for the visit of Aston Villa but that is complicated by Joelinton’s return. The Brazilian had started every Premier League game this term up until Ipswich when he was forced to serve a one-match ban for accumulating five yellow cards.

However, there was a chance Joelinton might have missed the trip to Portman Road anyway. During the midweek Carabao Cup win over Brentford, the 28-year-old was brought off at half-time and required hospital treatment after a clash with Nathan Collins left him with wounds and cuts on his face.

But Howe hopes to have him back against Villa. He said: “Yeah, we hope so. I think we’ll have a look at him today [Monday]. He had various facial injuries after the last home game against Brentford which he came off. A couple of stitches around his ear so we’ll see how he is today.”

The rest of the starting XI is expected to remain the same.

“Yeah what we have decided to do is look at it on a game-by-game basis,” said Howe when asked about rotation. “Last week was a three-game week but because of the scoreline in a couple of games we were able to just ease players’ minutes and manage the squad within games so we felt players were fresh enough to go again.

“We’ll do the same on a game-by-game basis rather than making decisions beforehand about who we are going to rest.”