£38m Newcastle United star suffers injury setback as another ruled out until after Liverpool clash

Newcastle United will be without Joe Willock and Harvey Barnes until January at the earliest, head coach Eddie Howe has revealed.

Willock was previously sidelined for five months whilst he recovered from a hamstring and Achilles injury before he suffered a recurrence of the latter last month.

And Barnes, who joined from Leicester City for £38million in the summer, hasn't featured since sustaining a toe injury in the early stages of the Magpies' 8-0 win at Sheffield United in September.

Howe confirmed both players had suffered a setback.

"Joe Willock is in a period where he's a couple of injections into his Achilles which has been a longstanding problem for him," Howe told NewcastleWorld. "A difficult injury. Where in the process of trying to get him back fit this side of January.

"And that will be the same for Harvey. Unfortunately, he didn't have surgery on his foot, the specialist felt he would be OK and we're still hoping it's not longer term and he won't need an operation but we're still in that phase of whether he's going to come back or not."

Howe added: "I'm not saying the end of January, we might not see them before just because of the amount of games we have."

United will be without Kieran Trippier for Saturday's Premier League clash at home to Fulham, while Howe hinted that Anthony Gordon will be available after feeling an awareness in his hamstring against AC Milan.

Howe said: "Kieran's missing this game through suspension so it's probably a good time for him to rest a couple of knocks that he's got and we'll see how he looks for next week.

"Anthony is usually a very quick recoverer of different things. We'll how he is today. So I've given you nothing!"

But United still remain without several first-team players, including the likes of Nick Pope, Elliot Anderson and Matt Targett.

"It's mixed and it's been mainly negative for so long on the injury front but we've battled through," said Howe. "We're getting players back but we're not getting them back in their best physical condition. 

"Dan Burn is close to being back, Sean Longstaff is close to being back. We're just having to manage them so they stay back.

"We've had some bizarre injuries that have contributed to the situation that we're in. I don't think it's linked to our style. I'm not naive, we play a high running game but all the top teams in the world play a high running game, I can't think of any top teams that don't run.

"We just need the squad to handle that and we felt pre-season we had that but no squad could cope with the number [of injuries] we've had. I'm not making excuses, I haven't got my violin out, it is what it is, we're embracing it and trying to do the best we can."