Plenty of positives to be seen as latest Newcastle training pictures released ahead of Man United game

Newcastle United take on Manchester United at Old Trafford tomorrow night with the Magpies hoping to secure their first finish above the Red Devils since the Premier League was formed.

A point will seal the deal for the Magpies, but with Chelsea chasing down Newcastle in the race for Europe, three points is the order of the day to make sure we stay ahead of the Blues.

Eddie Howe is hoping to have several players available for first-team selection who've been missing lately, or even just not fit enough to start.

The club put out images from today's training session which heavily featured a couple of those players who are looking to make the step up from benchwarmers to starters.

Serena Taylor via newcastleunited.com

Eddie Howe is welcoming back several big players for the final two games

Kieran Trippier, Joelinton, Nick Pope and Miguel Almiron were all heavily featured in the gallery today with all hoping to regain their places back in the first team after lengthy absences.

All except Pope have had some minutes under their belts in recent games, albeit just a five-minute cameo for Trippier on Saturday. We don't expect Tripps to be in from the start, but hopefully he'll get more game time than he got against Brighton.

In his pre-match press conference this morning Howe said he wasn't sure if Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson would return to training today after their recent illness.

There were no signs of our strikers in the gallery today

Neither player was seen in the gallery, but the club do have a habit of making sure players who are doubtful remain unseen in the training images, so they may have been there, but have been deliberately edited out.

The same goes for Fabian Schar who Howe hinted could be in line to return against Manchester United tomorrow.

It has certainly given us plenty to think about as we put together our predicted lineup for tomorrow's game, so we're sure Eddie Howe is having a good long think, too.