Sandro Tonali suffers "slight" injury on duty with Italy

Sky Sport Italy has this morning reported that Sandro Tonali suffered a "slight muscle injury" in training with Italy and will miss their European qualifier against Ukraine.

Tonali played 89 minutes of Italy's disappointing 1-1 draw with North Macedonia on Saturday and has been seen training at Milanello since, but will not return to the San Siro this evening.

The game is a must-win for the Italians, who are languishing in third place in Group C behind England and Ukraine, having collected just four points from their opening three matches.

Tonali must surely now be considered a doubt for Newcastle's crucial home game against Brentford on Saturday evening, as muscle issues don't tend to be ones that clear up in a matter of days.

The central midfielder's place in the side was already under threat, though, following a trio of disappointing performances since his blistering debut against Aston Villa on the opening weekend.

Sean Longstaff has been training fully at Benton throughout the international break and is pushing hard to return to the side in his favoured role on the right of the midfield trio.

There'll be more concrete news on Tonali's fitness in Eddie Howe's pre-match press conference, which is set to take place between 9 and 10 a.m. on Friday morning.