Newcastle United's Joelinton fears grow as Eddie Howe reacts to recurrence of knee injury

Newcastle United star Joelinton is sweating on being involved in the run-in for the Magpies after suffering a recurrence of a knee injury which hindered him earlier this term. The Brazil international is seeing a specialist this weekend and will be scanned again after feeling the issue in training on the eve of the game.

That led to Joelinton being instantly ruled out against Ipswich Town with Joe Willock replacing him. And now there is an anxious wait to see if the midfielder returns for the trip to Brighton & Hove Albion or indeed the remainder of the run-in the Premier League.

Speaking after the 3-0 win, Howe told Chronicle Live: "Joelinton is going to see a specialist actually, I am sure he will be scanned there as well. He trained yesterday and felt his knee was not 100% right.

"That is the knee he had the injury with earlier in the season. He has done brilliantly to play through the amount of games he has without being 100% fit, but he got to the point where he feels he needs a slight intervention. So we will keep our fingers crossed it is not serious."

The £40million signing was missing for 28 days earlier this year and sat out of five games, but made it back in time for the Carabao Cup final victory over Liverpool at Wembley. Before the game Howe had talked up Willock's presence in the side, but he cut a frustrated figure and did not really get going against the Tractor Boys.

Howe had said: "We miss Joelinton, he's going to be a big miss for us but Willock has great qualities as well. We're looking forward to seeing how he does, and we have a strong bench as well."