The surprise leader as we rank every Newcastle United player by minutes played in pre-season

Newcastle United rounded off a successful pre-season campaign with a 2-1 win over La Liga side Athletic Bilbao.

Published 1st Aug 2022, 13:36 BST

Updated 1st Aug 2022, 13:48 BST

Eddie Howe’s side faced seven opponents in pre-season - starting with Gateshead and ending with Bilbao at St James’ Park.

In between, the Magpies faced 1860 Munich and Mainz 05 in Austria before taking on Burnley and Benfica in Portugal.

United hosted Serie A outfit Atalanta on Friday and Bilbao less than 24 hours later, which attracted a combined crowd of over 86,000.

Newcastle won five and lost two but as we all know, results in don’t matter in pre-season.

It’s all about the minutes and here, NewcastleWorld ranks each Magpies player in order of minutes played:

1. Javier Manquillo - 0 minutes

Didn’t play a single minute in pre-season due to a groin injury.

Gillespie was an unused sub in the friendlies against Atalanta and Athletic Bilbao.

Has been sidelined with a calf injury.

A calf injury denied Lewis the chance to impress Howe in pre-season. Photo: Ian MacNicol