Illness leaves a few players a doubt for Newcastle clash

Ange Postecoglou has revealed illness within the squad has left some players a doubt for Saturday's clash with Newcastle United.

Hosting the Magpies in our first game of 2025, Ange confirmed, while we are already suffering with an injury-depleted squad, a bug among the players has left a number of them potentially unavailable for the first game of the New Year.

However, our Head Coach would not rule anyone out at this stage (Friday afternoon) with a decision still to be made on those affected by the illness ahead of the north east side's visit.

"We've had a bit of an illness/bug running through the squad so a few were missing from training, but we'll be alright," Ange said in his press conference on Friday afternoon.

When asked by a reporter whether we would lose any more players for the Newcastle game following the illness, Ange responded, "I'm not sure yet. We'll see."

Players who will certainly miss the game include Richarlison, Mikey Moore, Wilson Odobert, Destiny Udogie, Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero, Micky van de ven and Ben Davies, who are all out injured, while Rodrigo Bentancur is suspended.

Djed Spence, however, will be back available after he completed his one-match suspension on Saturday as we drew 2-2 with Wolves.