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Training so intense the players return home ready for bed, staff-bonding meals amid 12-hour days and visualising game plans on the St James' turf... Eddie Howe has raised the bar at Newcastle but will miss first game due to coronavrius diagnosis

It was only on Friday morning that Eddie Howe joked about his gravelly voice being the symptom of shouting at his Newcastle players for the past fortnight. Just hours later, however, he would test positive for Covid-19.

In a cruel twist of fate entirely in keeping with a football club whose hogging of headlines is seldom anything to do with football, Howe will now miss his first match in charge at home to Brentford on Saturday afternoon.

The hot take on the news was at least consistent - 'only at Newcastle United'.