No Callum Wilson: Team news released for Newcastle United as they face Bournemouth

Callum Wilson has failed a late fitness test and as such won't play a part in Newcastle United's game against AFC Bournemouth this evening.

It was touch and go whether Wilson would be fit enough to play and from around 4pm the evidence suggested that he'd not recovered in time to play.

As the school team bus pulled into the Vitality Stadium and the players began to disembark, it was clear not just that Callum Wilson was absent, but that Eddie Howe really is struggling to put a full squad together now.

Newcastle's bench is looking a bit on the young side

We don't mean this in any way as disrespect to the young lads but spotted exiting the bus were Alex Murphy, Ben Parkinson and Amadou Diallo. Parkinson and Diallo have been regulars on the bench through the injury crisis, and now we've added young Alex Murphy to the bench too.

In fairness, Murphy had an impressive pre-season so we were hoping to see more of him in and around the first team this season. Whether he'll get on the field today remains to be seen.

It's safe to say that we knew our predicted lineup was out the window as soon as we learned about Wilson being out, but we did posit different theories for just such an occasion.

No Tino Livramento in the starting lineup

We did suggest that Lewis Miley could start and that Lewis Hall could also start, but one thing we were not expecting was to see Tino Livramento on the bench. Hopefully, this is a tactical thing and not another mitigation thing, because if Tino is carrying a knock we're going to lose it.

As we've said before it's still a good enough team to get the job done, but it's another one of those games where the starting XI need to put the game to bed early as there's not a lot on that bench to change the game.

We're still confident of a win though, and we are kind of glad that Wilson wasn't risked, to be honest.