Eddie Howe has been putting his Newcastle United side through their paces ahead of Saturday’s trip to Aston Villa, and Alex Murphy has been included in this week’s group.
The 18-year-old defender joined Newcastle from Galway United last summer. Murphy had previously played with the Magpies’ Under-21s but is now training with the first team.
The club’s official website has been updated with a selection of training images from Thursday’s session, in which the teenager can be seen taking part. He can be seen in photo 12 completing a practice with Joelinton, Jacob Murphy, and Sven Botman.
It is excellent to see the Irish youngster involved with the senior side, and hopefully, it will become a regular occurrence in the future. That will be the aim of Dan Ashworth, who brought the highly rated left-back to Tyneside last summer.
This is not the first time that Murphy has been involved with Howe’s first-team. He travelled to Saudi Arabia during the World Cup break and featured in the Diriyah Season Cup against Al-Hilal, while he was on the bench for the friendly with Rayo Vallecano at St James’ Park late last yea
Alex Murphy joined by Miguel Almiron in Newcastle training
Murphy and Miguel Almiron are both involved in the team’s preparations for the game against Aston Villa.
The 29-year-old was rumored to be back after recovering from a thigh injury earlier this week, and he can be seen in training images released to the club’s official website.
It’s a tremendous help to get Almiron back, especially with Allan Saint-Maximin out with an injury.
Hopefully, Almiron’s return to full training means he’ll be well enough to sit on the bench at Villa Park, where he’ll want to face the team against whom he scored earlier in the season.
The Paraguayan produced a stunning goal in a 4-0 win at St James’ Park during his golden patch and Villa’s dreadful form.
However, a lot has changed since then. Almiron is hardly Newcastle’s best player, but Villa have been revitalized under Unai Emery.
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