Newcastle United add another friendly to the schedule in bid to boost fitness of Sandro Tonali

As part of Sandro Tonali's 10-month ban for breaching betting rules, the Italy international can not play in any friendlies that have a crowd meaning he cannot participate in Newcastle United's pre-season games.

This would mean that when Tonali's ban comes to an end in August, he will be severely lacking match sharpness.

Today, though, journalist Chris Waugh has posted on X that Newcastle have added a behind-closed-doors friendly to be played against Burnley at their training ground.

As it's a behind-closed-doors game, Sandro Tonali will be able to participate and get some minutes under his belt before returning to Premier League action.

Could the friendly be tied to a James Trafford deal?

We can't help but speculate that there could be an ulterior motive at play here too.

Newcastle were in talks with Burnley over a move for 21-year-old goalkeeper James Trafford, and despite bringing in John Ruddy and Odysseas Vlachodimos, rumours are that the Magpies are still keen to bring Trafford to St James' Park this summer.

This friendly could allow Eddie Howe to get an up-close look at Trafford, or the friendly itself could even be part of the Trafford deal, which has been known to happen (on Championship Manager back in the day at least).

Tonali is set to return to action against Tottenham Hotspur

Just to reiterate, that whole Trafford thing is just pure speculation on our part, we're not trying to be ITKs here.

With a bit of luck this won't be Newcastle's only behind-closed-doors game this summer so that Tonali can shake at least some of the rust off before he's eligible to play again.

Should Eddie Howe opt to use him, Tonali's first game could be against Tottenham Hotspur on 1st September live on Sky Sports.