Official club update on availability of Newcastle United players for Leicester City cup quarter-final

All eyes now turn to which Newcastle United players will be involved tonight against Leicester City.

This would be only the second time in the competition’s entire history (Newcastle first competing in the 1960/61 season) that NUFC had made it to a League Cup semi-final, the only previous one when beating Spurs and then losing to Man City in the 1976 final.

The fact this is the tenth time Newcastle have reached a League Cup quarter-final in 60+ years doesn’t sound too bad, until you realise that NUFC only need to win three games to reach this stage of the competition, which actually used to be only two when our club / team were regularly in European competition. Premier League clubs competing in Europe getting a bye these days in the second round, so this season the likes of Arsenal and Man City not playing any League / Carabao Cup matches until November 2022 in the third round.

Anyway, back to the present day and on the eve of this Leicester match, Eddie Howe gave an official club update on availability of Newcastle United players for tonight, as well as explaining his approach to team selection in this busy period after the Qatar World Cup:

“Allan Saint-Maximin – I don’t know, we will have to wait and see.

“Callum Wilson I expect to be back.

“Fingers crossed, Nick Pope and Fabian Schar will also be back.

“Alexander Isak is getting closer (to full fitness).

“Hopefully, Saturday (against Sheffield Wednesday) will do him good.

“He will be involved (in the squad to face Leicester).

“We want him fit and available as quickly as possible and I felt that 45 minutes (at Hillsborough) was his maximum.

“We wanted him to warm up and give him every chance to play his best football for that 45 minutes.

“I thought he did very well, he was lively and had chances to score.

“We’ll be going full strength to win the match.

“The fact that it (quarter-final v Leicester) is earlier in the season, you have a better chance of playing your stronger team.

“With Saturday’s game, the timing was difficult because of Tuesday’s upcoming game (against Leicester).

“It is a very quick turnaround on the back of a congested league period but the Carabao Cup, in the latter stages, now takes on huge importance.”

Following this update above, late Monday saw The Telegraph report that their information was that Allan Saint-Maximin had trained well yesterday and ‘will be involved against Leicester’ tonight.

Taking all the information above, I think we have a pretty clear picture on which Newcastle United players are set to be involved tonight.

Botman, Longstaff, Joelinton, Trippier, Almiron, Willock, Burn and Bruno were all in the matchday squad on Saturday, so with no news of any injury issues, I would expect all eight of these Newcastle United players to be available and start tonight.

Eddie Howe adds that he expects Pope, Wilson and Schar to also be available.

So if you add all of that together…you get this potential starting line-up against Leicester:

Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Bruno, Longstaff, Willock, Almiron, Joelinton, Wilson

These are the eleven Newcastle United players who started and played so well against Arsenal seven days (nights) ago and became the first PL team to take any points off the Gunners at The Emirates this season. NUFC also becoming the first to prevent Arsenal scoring in any PL game, home or away.

Fingers crossed, tonight could see Newcastle United with their strongest set of options in a matchday squad so far this season.

I expect that eleven above to start, who have played so well and been key to the excellent run of results in recent times. PLUS, both Isak and ASM set to be on the bench and available if needed.

Complete Newcastle United match and live TV schedule so far confirmed up to end of February 2023:

Tuesday 10 January 2023 – Newcastle v Leicester (8pm) Sky Sports (Carabao Cup quarter-final)

Sunday 15 January 2023 – Newcastle v Fulham (2pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 21 January 2023 – Crystal Palace v Newcastle (5.30pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 4 February 2023 – Newcastle v West Ham (5.30pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 11 February 2023 – Bournemouth v Newcastle (5.30pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 18 February 2023 – Newcastle v Liverpool (5.30pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 25 February 2023 – Newcastle v Brighton (12.30pm) BT Sport