Bruno Guimaraes offers Newcastle United injury update as Eddie Howe sweats over midfield duo

After welcoming senior stars back into the fold on Monday evening, Newcastle United are now sweating over a different duo with Bruno Guimaraes and Joe Willock both being forced off through injury in the St James' Park defeat.

Willock's withdrawal came at the interval after an innocuous collision with Sean Longstaff when attempting to defend a Carlos Soler shot in the opening period. Meanwhile, Guimaraes signalled that he needed to come off late in the second-half with his team looking beaten, with the skipper hoping to have avoided a significant issue.

“A night to forget,” Guimaraes wrote on social media after the game. “I hope the injury isn’t too serious. Thank you for the support, @nufc fans.”

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Newcastle have until Saturday afternoon to get the key midfield duo ready as the Magpies take a trip to the capital to face Crystal Palace. Should neither be passed fit for the south London showdown, the likes of Harvey Barnes and Sandro Tonali will likely be reintroduced from the sidelines in their place.

“Joe took a knock to part of his leg and didn't feel 100% [at half-time]. Bruno felt a glute, I believe, but hopefully they're not big problems," Eddie Howe explained at full-time.

“It's an art to get the team into the right physical and mental condition to play. We look forward to the intense period we've got coming up, we need to keep the squad in good health if we can but the two lads tonight are the concerns. We'll see how we look.”

Newcastle enjoyed an injury boost before kick-off, welcoming both Kieran Trippier and Callum Wilson back into the matchday squad. It was the latter's first appearance of the season as he entered the fray with 20 minutes to play - and on another evening Newcastle's No 9 would have won a penalty after a tangle with Konstantinos Mavropanos.

Trippier introduced Guimaraes as he trudged off late on, with the right-back last featuring for the club in early October before suffering a hamstring problem.