North East journalist now says Alexander Isak and Joe Willock will be in the squad on Saturday

Rumours are intensifying that Alexander Isak and Joe Willock will be fit enough to make the squad to face Arsenal on Saturday night.

Newcastle head to the Emirates on Saturday for a 9pm kick-off live on TNT Sports and they will now be buoyed by having two hugely important players back from injury.

According to local journo Joel Bland, the Sweden international and the criminally overlooked-for-England midfielder will both be in the squad that heads to the Capital.

Alexander Isak and Joe Willock were back in training this week

It was reported that both were back in training this week, although the duo were absent from the training ground images put out by the club yesterday.

Their absence from the training photos doesn't mean anything, though as we've learned. Unless a player is 100% certain to make the squad, they don't get shown in training. Mini mind games ahoy.

It may be a bit too soon for them both to start, although with Isak being so close to a return last week, he could be deemed fit enough to lead the line from the off.

Even with Isak and Willock back, confidence is not high

We expect that Joe Willock will be on the bench and could be given half an hour to take a run at his former club depending on the scoreline and the way the game is going.

Just having a recognised striker in the squad will be a massive boost, even if we have to wait for his introduction, as long as we have a striker on the pitch at some point, that's a positive sign.

If we're being honest, we're still nervous as all hell and really not confident going into this one, but we weren't confident heading into the Aston Villa game either, so there's that.