Newcastle will make a late decision on the fitness of Anthony Gordon for Sunday’s Premier League visit of Manchester United to Tyneside.
The Magpies winger has not played for his club since being sent off for pushing Jan Paul van Hecke in the head during a 2-1 home defeat by Brighton in the FA Cup fifth round on March 2, a costly act which earned him a three-game suspension and ruled him out of Newcastle’s famous Carabao Cup final victory over Liverpool at Wembley, in addition to the recent top-flight wins against West Ham and Brentford.
Gordon - who was part of Newcastle’s Carabao Cup celebrations - would not have been fit for that latter game anyway and also missed Monday night’s 3-0 win at relegation-threatened Leicester after suffering an injury that saw him limp off following his introduction off the bench by new England boss Thomas Tuchel during the 2-0 win over Albania in 2026 World Cup qualifying on March 21.
The 24-year-old withdrew from the Three Lions squad ahead of their second match against Latvia at Wembley and returned to Newcastle for further assessment, receiving treatment for what Newcastle boss Eddie Howe confirmed was a “really nasty bruise in and around his thigh/groin area” sustained in a heavy tackle.
Howe stated that Gordon was not close to being involved against Leicester after being unable to rejoin first-team training, though there is hope that he could yet feature against Manchester United at St James’ Park on Sunday as fifth-place Newcastle look for a fifth consecutive win across all competitions in their bid to secure a return to the Champions League next season.
Providing a new update on Gordon’s fitness on Friday, Newcastle assistant manager Jason Tindall said: “He's had a decent week with the physios.
“He was back out on the grass for a session yesterday so we'll assess him today to see how he's responded to that, then we'll have to make a late call on whether he's available for Sunday.”
Newcastle will remain without long-term absentees Lewis Hall, Sven Botman and Jamaal Lascelles against Manchester United, while Joe Willock will also remain sidelined after suffering a concussion.
Tindall filled in for boss Howe at Friday’s pre-match press conference, though the latter is expected to recover from a bout of illness in time to be on the touchline as normal this weekend.
“He's been really poorly in the last couple of days but we've been in daily contact,” Tindall said. “We've been speaking three or four times a day so it's not affected any of the preparations. We've still got a couple of days and I'm sure he'll be fine for the weekend.”
