Newcastle United star Allan Saint-Maximin is set to step up his fitness on Thursday evening in Riyadh.
The eagerly anticipated exhibition game will see Eddie Howe field a strong team against Al-Hilal with Joelinton, Sven Botman and the French winger all set to feature. Howe will, of course, be without his World Cup stars with Kieran Trippier, Nick Pope and Callum Wilson all in Qatar and preparing for Sunday's quarter-final clash in Qatar.
Fabian Schar and Bruno Guimaraes are also on international duty and then set to be granted rest after the tournament regardless of how long they stay in it with Switzerland and Brazil respectively. But Howe is keen to start shaping his team for both the League Cup clash with AFC Bournemouth and then the encounter at Leicester City on Boxing Day.
But the mini pre-season for Saint-Maximin is particularly important as the Toon star was just starting to get back up to speed after a muscle injury when the season was paused. After a good rest period he is now ready to push on with his fitness.
It is expected that Dan Burn will link up with the squad today after the team started training yesterday. A minor illness is understood to have prevented Burn from being involved when the team departed on Sunday.
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