![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_JS400856020.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Dutchman had not been expected back until the end of the season<\/p>\n
Eddie Howe has come under pressure following Newcastle United’s poor form this season.<\/p>\n
Newcastle United star Sven Botman will be back in contention to join the Magpies’ ailing European bid on Sunday – albeit wearing a protective mask.<\/p>\n
Just two weeks after United stated that the Dutchman would not return until the final weeks of the campaign, a decision has been made behind the scenes at Benton to allow Botman – who has an outside chance of making Holland’s World Cup squad – to play through a facial injury suffered in the 2-1 defeat to Sunderland<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n Journalists were briefed by a club official on Botman’s status after Eddie Howe’s<\/a> press conference, after the centre-back’s chances of playing had been missed out by the head coach when asked for an injury update on the squad. Botman’s presence comes as a big boost for Newcastle<\/a> who won’t have Fabian Schar available until May.<\/p>\n Speaking on injuries today, Howe said: “We’ve had mixed injury news, I’d say, during the break. We certainly look stronger than we did going into the Sunderland game where we had a number of absentees.<\/p>\n Get Chronicle Premium now for just \u00a31 HERE<\/a> \u2013 exclusive news and features, our NUFC and Academy notebooks, plus an ad-lite experience<\/p>\n “Bruno (Guimar\u00e3es) suffered, as probably the majority know, from mumps on his return from Brazil. That’s delayed his return, so he will not be involved in this game. I think there’s probably a doubt over the Bournemouth game as well for him – no injury concern, more just the illness stopped him doing some key work we needed him to do to be considered for these games. He may be the game after, but it’s important he comes back when he’s ready.<\/p>\n “Fabian, unfortunately, suffered an infection in his foot so he’s been in hospital having a very small operation to get that cleaned out. He won’t return for around a month, we think, so that’s bad news on him.<\/p>\n “On everybody else, we’re pretty good. Lewy (Miley)’s trained and trained well with us so that’s a big thing for us to see because we’ve missed him massively.”<\/p>\n Howe also updated journalists on Sandro Tonali who had missed out against Sunderland because of a groin injury suffered in Barcelona. Since then Tonali featured in Italy’s play-off defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n Tonali has trained and should face Palace, Howe said: “Then of course you add Sandro (Tonali), who played during the international break anyway, with his injury from the Sunderland game. Others are in a good place.”<\/p>\n Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package<\/p>\n This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more<\/a> Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.<\/p>\n Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Get Chronicle Premium now for just \u00a31 HERE<\/a> \u2013 exclusive news and features, our NUFC and Academy notebooks, John Gibson’s columns plus an ad-lite experience<\/p>\n Here at ChronicleLive, we are dedicated to bringing you the best Newcastle United<\/a> coverage and analysis.<\/p>\n Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest NUFC news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here<\/a> to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here<\/a> to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.<\/p>\n And, finally, if you would rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Everything is Black and White podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify<\/a> and Apple Podcasts<\/a>, and you can also watch along on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dutchman had not been expected back until the end of the season Eddie Howe has come under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,2806,101,100477,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-523415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-newcastle-united-fc","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-sven-botman","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Content](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769328430_711_0_Sky-Factbox.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n