Three Newcastle United players ruled out of Rayo Vallecano friendly - with five doubtful

Newcastle United take on La Liga side Rayo Vallecano in their final warm-up game before the 2021-22 campaign resumes next week.

It’s been five weeks since the Magpies last kicked a competitive ball after a 1-0 victory over Chelsea sent supporters home happy heading into World Cup break.

Eddie Howe then granted his players, excluding those in Qatar, a fortnight off before jetting out to Saudi Arabia for a mid-season training camp.

During their week-long visit, United trained at Al-Hilal’s training centre and ended their stay in a positive fashion with a 5-0 win over the Saudi Pro League leaders.

Now, it’s back to home turf, with Vallecano the visitors before Howe’s men get their competitive season back underway against Bournemouth in the last 16 of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night.

Having only just returned from World Cup duty this week, England trio Nick Pope, Callum Wilson and Kieran Trippier - who suffered a quarter-final exit to France - are unlikely to feature this afternoon.

The same goes for Bruno Guimaraes, who was an unused substitute as Brazil lost on penalities to Croatia at the same stage, and Fabian Schar. The Switzerland defender was forced off at half-time through illness as his nation were hammered 6-1 by Portugal in the last 16.

Alexander Isak has already been ruled out as he continues his recovery from a thigh injury and faces a race against time to be fit for the season restart.

Speaking last week, Howe said: “He’s doing well,” Howe said. “This was the plan. We didn’t expect him to train with the group when we first started training so he’s with the sports scientist team and physios.

“We are building him up in a controlled way and we expect him to be very close for Bournemouth or Leicester, we’re not sure if he’ll be fit or available for those games yet.

“There’s no setback. There was an initial setback when he re-injured his thigh and as a consequence of that we just want to make sure we get him fully fit.”

Paul Dummett is currently sidelined with a back problem, while Emil Krafth is set to miss the majority - if not all the season - with an ACL injury.