Eddie Howe’s team news update: Woltemade, Livramento and Miley latest

Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe delivered a cautiously optimistic bulletin on three of his injured or unavailable players ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup meeting with Manchester City, while urging his side to reproduce the intensity that carried them past Manchester United in mid-week.

Speaking at Friday morning’s pre-match media briefing at the Newcastle United Media Centre, Howe confirmed that on-loan striker Nick Woltemade has recovered from the illness that forced him to miss Wednesday’s dramatic 2-1 victory over United. “Nick should be okay,” Howe said. “He had an illness and lost a bit of weight. He trained yesterday individually and felt okay, so that’s a positive.”

The news is less encouraging for teenage midfielder Lewis Miley, who will sit out “the next couple of games,” and full-back Tino Livramento, who remains in the final phases of rehabilitation. “Tino is getting there—let’s wait and see,” Howe added. “He hasn’t trained with us yet, but he has done a lot of work. There’s no question about how his fitness is; he has been running for a long time. He has a lot of work behind him, but it is just that training time with us.”

Newcastle will need every available body against a City side they have already faced four times this season. Howe believes the margins in those encounters have been razor-thin. “The games against Manchester City have all been close,” he reflected. “We’ve had chances against them. I don’t think we’ve been as clinical as we need to be to win those games, and, of course, defensively we need to be watertight. They’re always going to test you. They are a difficult team to pin down in every moment. It will be a proper FA Cup tie, one of those end-to-end games. That will suit us, and we will need to get the crowd involved.”

Howe also praised winger Will, who has stepped up his individual work with first-team coach Graeme Jones after a lengthy ankle lay-off. “Will is something that always works on his game,” the manager said. “He’s got a lot of areas to focus on and continue his development. He’s worked incredibly hard since he’s joined us. He is confident again in his ankle and physically getting better.”

The 46-year-old stressed that re-energising St James’ Park will be critical to another cup upset. “The crowd react to us,” he said. “It is our duty to set the tone, and I felt we did that against Manchester United, with a bright start, energetic and positive in our outlook, trying to score and attack in the right way. The crowd then backed us to the very end and helped us get over the line to win that game. We need a ferocious St James’ Park, but that’s going to come from our body language and start to the game.”

With Woltemade potentially returning and the squad still shorn of Miley and Livramento, Howe’s selection options remain limited, yet the manager’s message was clear: reproduce the fervour shown against United, and another City showdown could tilt Newcastle’s way.