Dwight Gayle has been given a period of complete rest as Newcastle United struggle to get to the bottom of the striker's calf troubles.
Steve Bruce is a big fan of Gayle and the Magpies' head coach believed it was important to hold onto the striker when he analysed where the goals were going to potentially come from this season.
Gayle travelled to China with his team-mates for the Premier League Asia Cup but did not play and has been sidelined by a calf problem for much of the summer.
Initially, it was thought that Gayle had a strain but the 28-year-old was sent to a specialist a couple of weeks ago after again feeling his calf while doing some strength work in the gym.
Bruce, who previously tried to sign Gayle on a number of occasions, now hopes that a period of rest will help him get over the problem once and for all.
"We're doing everything we can. We've had scan after scan and specialist after specialist. We just can't seem to get to the bottom of it so it's now complete rest," Bruce said.
"We've just come off it totally and hopefully that will maybe do it the world of good. As I said, he trained the day before we left China so I thought, 'He looks as if he's going to be OK. He's training well.' It's a problem. It's a problem because we can't get to the bottom of it."
In 2017-18, Gayle missed just three league games through injury with Newcastle and played 41 times for West Brom while on loan at the Hawthorns last season.
