Newcastle United's pre-season preparations will step up a notch this weekend when they face Gateshead at the Gateshead International Stadium. The Magpies will play in front of paying supporters for the first time this summer, having kicked off their preparations for the 2026/27 season with a 3-0 win over National League North side Darlington in a behind-closed-doors friendly at the KNOX training centre.
Injury and World Cup absentees
Eddie Howe's side were without Fabian Schar, Joelinton, Lewis Miley and Tino Livramento through injury for the Darlington match. It remains to be seen whether any of those players will be fit to return against Lee Cattermole's side on Saturday lunchtime.
They were also without five players who represented their countries in the World Cup: Anthony Elanga, Yoane Wissa, Nick Woltemade, Malick Thiaw and new signing Bazoumana Toure. All five exited the competition around three weeks ago and, according to the timeline Howe set out in May, should be back at the club's training ground imminently.
Howe's timeline for returns
Howe told reporters in May: "It is an interesting one because it will be different with the World Cup. We plan to come back around the 13th of July which is a week longer than normal because of the World Cup. We will go away to Spain in La Manga for around 10 days so there will be no huge long flight for the players this time in line with the World Cup. With the travel those players will do we are trying to keep things really simple because we have to make sure the players are in the best physical condition. The World Cup players will get roughly around three weeks off, depending on when they exit the competition."
Working off that theory, all five players should at least be back in training this week, but it remains to be seen whether that is the case and whether they would have had sufficient time to be available for Saturday's clash against Gateshead. Elanga was confirmed to have returned to training ahead of schedule last week and could be in contention at the weekend, but there has been no confirmation as to whether the other four players have returned in accordance with the schedule Howe specified at the end of the season.
Quadruple boost and upcoming fixtures
Their return to the pre-season camp will be a welcome quadruple boost for Howe, who fielded youngsters Leo Shahar and Alex Murphy in his starting XI against Darlington and fielded 10 academy players in the second half of that win. Newcastle continue their pre-season campaign with a trip to Bristol City next Wednesday before jetting off to Spain for a training camp in La Manga. A friendly with Valencia will follow before clashes against Everton, Bayer Leverkusen and Strasbourg bring their summer preparations to a close.
