Newcastle United sweat on star's fitness for Crystal Palace and radical choice Eddie Howe could make

Newcastle United are sweating on the fitness of skipper Bruno Guimaraes going into Saturday's trip to Crystal Palace.

Bruno went off in the miserable 2-0 defeat at home to West Ham at St James' Park on Monday night with a glute injury and was ordered straight to the dressing room for treatment with physio Daniel Marti. Since then Bruno has had treatment on the issue and is being assessed but was not pictured training on Wednesday with two sessions to go before the encounter at Selhurst Park.

If Bruno doesn't make it, Sandro Tonali would be a shoo-in to start his first Premier League game in a month. The positive news coming from Benton is that Joe Willock - who also went off injured with a knock against the Hammers - has trained and is in contention for the game against Oliver Glasner's improving Eagles who have lost just once in five matches after a sticky start.

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Willock would go into the battle for places alongside Tonali and Sean Longstaff but Howe is mindful of the fact that Lewis Miley is in need of minutes after not even making the squad against West Ham due to the competition for places.

Miley has played a single minute of action, against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup, after coming back from a summer foot injury. Bringing Miley back in from the start would be deemed a radical change but with Howe's team needing a shot in the arm and the Toon head coach capable of providing shockwaves when the team sheets are distributed it can't be ruled out.

Although, Miley was also not in any of the training pictures Newcastle distributed on Wednesday. Eddie Howe will also have Dan Burn back from suspension after his one-match ban.

Howe did not have the benefit of working with the group for too long after the international break and even after two extra sessions, his team did not hit the ground running when they went back into domestic action. Somewhere along the line the momentum and positivity from the 3-1 win at Nottingham Forest evaporated.

Howe reflected: "Yes, there's always that concern because you just lose contact time with the players, the players go through a totally different experience and then they come back together as a group.

"“Now usually, historically we have been very good in that respect. Why we should suddenly find it difficult, I don't know. It's one of the mysteries, really, of football and we need to go away and think about that."

Burn is likely to come in against Palace with the Blyth lad a hot favourite to replace Lloyd Kelly in the capital. That could be one of at least two changes if Bruno doesn't make it with the midfielder still being assessed today.