Tino Livramento has returned to full Newcastle United training ahead of this weekend's Premier League opener against Liverpool, giving the club a major boost.
Livramento missed all of pre-season recovering from a calf injury that ruled him out of England's World Cup campaign, but was seen stepping up his individual rehabilitation at the KNOX training centre last week.
Full training return
On Wednesday morning, the England international was pictured in full training by Sky Sports cameras after they were given access to Matthias Jaissle's side's preparations. Livramento was seen alongside Lewis Hall during a passing drill and looked in good spirits as he prepares to make his long-awaited return to the Newcastle side.
The 23-year-old missed more than half of Newcastle's games last season through various injury concerns and will be desperate to put that behind him and get a regular run of matches in the starting XI.
Match readiness uncertain
Whether he will be ready to feature at the weekend remains to be seen, with new signing Amar Dedic on standby to make his Newcastle United debut at right-back after joining from Benfica on Tuesday. Teenagers Mason Miley and Leo Shahar have deputised ably at right-back this summer, with both youngsters also pushing to be involved this weekend and against West Bromwich Albion in the Carabao Cup second round clash next week.
Contract situation
Livramento is into the final two years of his contract at St James' Park. Speaking back in December, sporting director Ross Wilson said it was one of the club's top priorities to tie him down to a new deal amid interest from Manchester City and Arsenal.
"My first days were about analysing contracts – where are we, where are we strong, where are we weak, where have we got issues?" Wilson said. "It's no secret at all that we would want to extend Tino's contract and we would want to extend Sven Botman's contract too. Those discussions are ongoing. Some discussions are more difficult than others, but the desire would be to keep those players. Will they agree those contracts? At the moment, I think it's too early to say."
Botman signed a fresh contract extension earlier this year but as things stand, Livramento is yet to commit to fresh terms on Tyneside.
