Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe has, on Sunday evening, provided an explanation for midfielder Joe Willock being confined to the bench from the off in the club’s meeting with Manchester United.
The Magpies, of course, were back in action earlier today.
Riding high on the back of a fine recent stretch of form, Howe’s troops made the trip to Old Trafford, hopeful of making it five successive Premier League outings without defeat.
And, when all was said and done in Manchester, this is precisely what the day’s visitors managed.
This came as a hard-fought 90 minutes saw both sides fail to conjure up the telling moment of quality needed to open the scoring, en route to an eventual 0-0 stalemate.
A point on the road. 👊#MUNNEW // #NUFC pic.twitter.com/ekGFgcsEoO
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) October 16, 2022
Newcastle’s commendable point on Sunday, as alluded to above, came with an ever-present from the club’s season to date having been forced to make do with a spot on the bench.
Midfielder Willock, before today, had been afforded a starting berth in each of Newcastle’s nine league outings, seeing out the full 90 minutes in the last six, too.
Speaking post-match, Eddie Howe was therefore drawn on the ex-Arsenal talent emerging for just the final 12 minutes at Old Trafford.
And Newcastle’s boss went on to reveal that Willock, in fact, had emerged as a major doubt to feature at all this weekend, owing to a recent bout of illness:
The reason why Willock was benched at Old Trafford. ‘Joe didn’t train for the last few days. He’s been very unwell and travelled separately but made himself available – and credit to him. I trusted him to come on the pitch to deliver for us in that short period of time.’ #NUFC https://t.co/B4SRSZeAIu
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) October 16, 2022
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