{"id":220358,"date":"2025-10-17T13:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/220358\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T13:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:55:08","slug":"wissa-club-v-country-row-looming-as-howe-avoids-questions-on-afcon-availability-newcastle-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/220358\/","title":{"rendered":"Wissa club v country row looming as Howe avoids questions on Afcon availability | Newcastle United"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yoane Wissa could become embroiled in a club v country row after Eddie Howe declined to confirm whether he would be happy for Newcastle\u2019s \u00a355m striker to represent the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in this winter\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wissa is sidelined with a posterior cruciate ligament injury sustained on international duty with the Leopards in September and has not kicked a ball for Newcastle since his summer transfer deadline day move<\/a> to St James\u2019s Park from Brentford. The 29-year-old has only just begun light running on grass and is still receiving intense physiotherapy on his knee before a prospective first team debut in mid-November.<\/p>\n

Alan Shearer is among those pundits suggesting that Wissa should reject an almost inevitable call-up from the DRC for the tournament in Morocco in December and January and, instead, prioritise playing for Newcastle.<\/p>\n

When Howe was asked if he endorsed that standpoint, Newcastle\u2019s manager avoided answering the question directly. \u201cThat\u2019s a conversation and a topic I\u2019m not going to get involved in,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not fair on Yoane. I haven\u2019t seen Alan\u2019s comments but that\u2019s one I\u2019ll stay away from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now Howe \u2013 whose side travel to Brighton on Saturday \u2013 is simply relieved that Wissa\u2019s knee is recovering so rapidly from an injury that can sometimes require surgery and a nine-month layoff. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see Yoane on the grass for the first time,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s reacted pretty well to that work so far. Now, it\u2019s a case of trying to step him up gradually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shearer believes Wissa, one of the DRC\u2019s best players, acted irresponsibly in playing a key role during the World Cup qualifiers in September, despite barely training with Brentford during a close season spent largely trying to force a move to Tyneside.<\/p>\n

Eddie Howe hopes to have Yoane Wissa available for Newcastle from mid-November, but the Africa Cup of Nations kicks off in December. Photograph: Gary Oakley\/EPA<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a really difficult decision for Wissa not to go to Afcon,\u201d said the former Newcastle captain and manager. \u201cBut, because of him not training or playing during the summer, he could have shown more responsibility in not playing as much as he did in those two games when he went away on international duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Newcastle officials are in regular contact with their counterparts in Marseille over arrangements for visiting fans wanting to travel to the French city for the teams\u2019 Champions League meeting in late November.<\/p>\n

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In September the Marseille office of France\u2019s ministry of the interior imposed a total ban on Ajax fans entering the city only three days before their Champions League fixture with the Dutch side. Newcastle hope their fans will avoid a similar scenario but cannot discount that possibility.<\/p>\n

A club spokesperson said: \u201cFrom the information we have now, at this moment in time, our fans are permitted to travel to Marseille. We have very clear instructions from the authorities in Marseille for when they do travel. So we\u2019ll stick to that and let you know if there\u2019s any change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Newcastle fans have already made travel arrangements while a series of special supporters\u2019 charter flights have been organised to fly them direct from Tyneside to the south of France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yoane Wissa could become embroiled in a club v country row after Eddie Howe declined to confirm whether…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-220358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}