'I don't': Eddie Howe seems extra cagey this morning when talking about available players

Newcastle United fans will have been hoping to hear some good news from Eddie Howe this morning regarding player injuries.

This morning Eddie Howe was back in the hot seat fielding questions from the media ahead of Chelsea's visit to St James' Park tomorrow afternoon.

With Newcastle potentially missing 12 players from the first-team squad due to injuries, a suspension and pesky rules on loan players facing their parent club, it was only natural that injury updates would kick off proceedings.

Eddie Howe was dodging questions like Muhammad Ali dodged punches

However, if fans were refreshing their X feeds in the hope of some good news, they were bang out of luck.

Serena Taylor - Newcastle United

It wasn't necessarily bad news either, as Eddie Howe was just being extremely evasive.

Newcastle's injury issues are well known, so if Howe has players returning that the opposition aren't expecting, then it makes sense that he would want to keep that information to himself.

Alexander Isak was said to be fit to return earlier in the week but was suspiciously absent from yesterday's training photos. When asked about his availability this morning, Howe gave nothing away. (via The Chronicle)

"I don't want to give too much away. We have the majority of players out with longer-term injuries. January for a few of them."

That was genuinely Howe answering the question around Isak's fitness. Not even a mention of the player himself.

Is Wor Eddie playing mind games?

It suggests to us that Isak is raring to go he just wants to keep Mauricio Pochettino guessing.

Howe did confirm Miguel Almiron will be available, as will Fabian Schar, but was less certain around Sean Longstaff who picked up a knock to his ankle in the Bournemouth game.

Bruno Guimaraes returns from suspension and Joelinton should be pretty fresh after getting just nine minutes of football midweek for Brazil before being sent off.