Erling Haaland remains sidelined for Manchester City as Pep Guardiola prepares for his team to face Newcastle.
City have the opportunity to move within two points of leaders Liverpool if they can claim three points at St James Park. However, they will once again be without their star No.9 as his absence stretches to a ninth game.
Guardiola will also have to make do without John Stones, while hoping that Jack Grealish recovers from a virus that has disrupted his week. “Hopefully today he’s back,” he said, “[but] Erling is out and John are out.”
City have better news in Kevin De Bruyne, who returned to first-team action with an assist in the FA Cup win over Huddersfield. The Belgian stressed after the game that he was not expecting to start games any time soon, although Guardiola insists he is ready after being pleasantly surprised by the Huddersfield display.
“What I saw yesterday he looks really good and dynamic,” he said. “The minutes he played were really good, better than the training session before the Huddersfield game where he was a little bit now what he is.
“It’s normal when you come from five months of injury to have highs and lows in training. He is getting better. We have a game, then we will do four or five training sessions in Abu Dhabi and that will help us to be better for the next months.”