UEFA Champions League regulations rule four Newcastle United players out v AC Milan - two played at Spurs

Four Newcastle United players who were involved against Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend will be forced to sit out of Wednesday night's crunch Champions League clash at home to AC Milan (kick-off 8pm).

The Magpies welcome the Italian giants to St James' Park in their final Group F fixture. Eddie Howe's side are eyeing a place in the last 16 of the competition but must win and hope Paris Saint-Germain fail to beat Borussia Dortmund.

United lost 4-1 at Spurs on Sunday - their second defeat in just four days - with Howe reluctantly highlighting the club's current injury situation after he was without 10 senior players for the trip to North London.

The return of Callum Wilson and Sean Longstaff to the matchday squad did bolster the bench, however, Howe will lose some experienced heads against Milan due to Champions League regulations.

Seventeen players can be named in a club's Champions League squad without any restrictions. Then, in order to name more players, clubs must include up to eight further homegrown players.

Of the eight homegrown players, at least four must be club-trained in order to name a full squad of 25. If a club is unable to fill the homegrown or club-trained player quotas, their squad sizes will be reduced accordingly.

While players born before January 1, 2002 do not need to be included in the 25-man squad, they do need to be included on the ‘B List’. However, to be eligible, they must have played for the club for an uninterrupted period of at least two years or three years including a one-year loan spell.

Lewis Miley falls into this category but Alex Murphy, who was on the bench at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, does not having only joined the academy last year from Galway United.

Howe, however, can call up Ben Parkinson, Michael Ndiweni, Lucas de Bole, James Huntley and Aidan Harris, all of whom have appeared in a Champions League matchday squad this term.

An unlimited number of players can be named on ‘B List’ and they can be submitted by midnight the day before a match in order for players to be eligible to play.

Further to the above, Newcastle only have three club-trained first-team players in Elliot Anderson, Sean Longstaff and Paul Dummett, meaning they could only name a ‘List A’ squad of up to 24 players, or 23 players with Anderson named in ‘List B’.

As a result, Emil Krafth & Matt Ritchie, who were brought against Tottenham, and Mark Gillespie, an unused substitute, were left out of the squad when submitted in August and therefore cannot play in the Champion League.

Javier Manqullo was also left out but the Spaniard is currently sidelined with a groin injury anyway.

UEFA rules permit clubs to name 12 substitutes but that is nigh-on impossible for Howe at present given the long list of absentees.