Bruno Guimaraes gives Newcastle United huge boost ahead of huge Paris Saint-Germain clash
Newcastle United will need all hands on deck to ensure they can beat Paris Saint-Germain in France's capital on Wednesday night.
The winner of Wednesday's clash will avoid the need to play a two-legged play-off for a place in the knock-out stages of the Champions League.
Newcastle's schedule this season has taken its toll on the squad massively, and so the Magpies will be desperate to avoid adding an extra two games to the calendar.
It's already a tricky task against the current Champions League holders, but Newcastle are going into this one facing the prospect of being without their most influential player, Bruno Guimaraes.
Bruno Guimaraes has travelled to Paris
Newcastle once again failed to win without Bruno Guimaraes in the team on Sunday when Aston Villa came away from St James' Park 2-0 winners. That made it nine Premier League games without a win where Bruno hasn't been involved.
Fortunately, the Daily Mail have reported today that Bruno Guimaraes has travelled with the squad to France but will still have to undergo a late fitness test before his involvement is confirmed.
Eddie Howe always seemed pretty confident that the skipper's injury wasn't too severe, but when he wasn't in the squad at all on Sunday, eyebrows were raised.
Eddie Howe will give us an update this afternoon
It now looks as though the decision to keep him out of the squad entirely on Sunday was the right one.
Hopefully, Bruno will sail through his fitness test and be in from the start and fit enough to last the duration, but we'll likely find out more from Eddie Howe this afternoon when he speaks to the media.
Either way, just knowing he's there for now is a big enough boost to build confidence.
