Newcastle United are set to create a pre-season training bubble ahead of their return to work next week.
The club will again test squad members for Covid-19 but aim to keep numbers down to a certain level as they did back in June when Jack Colback and Jamie Sterry were told to train at home until the end of their contracts.
In previous years United have sent players on the transfer list to train at the club's Academy.
But it remains to be seen how they deal with non-playing squad members this term.
Players who spent last season on loan such as Rolando Aarons, who had stints at Motherwell and Wycombe Wanderers, Achraf Lazaar, with the Morocco international turning out in Serie B for Cosenza and Jacob Murphy, who plied his trade at Sheffield Wednesday for the campaign, are all due back next week.
Murphy is looking for another loan club and has attracted interest from Derby County and Nottingham Forest but Aarons and Lazaar, who have a year left of their contract will return to the club.
Newcastle also have ex-Bordeaux man Henri Saviet still on the books with the Senegal international costing the club £35,000 per week with the midfielder making just eight appearances in half a decade for the Magpies.
Lazaar and Aarons are also on bumper weekly wage packets. and have hardly been used by United in the last couple of seasons.
It is understood that Newcastle won't stand in the way if any of the foursome want to leave with no guarantees of squad places next season.
All four were left out of the club's 25-man last season.
Newcastle also assured midfielder Dan Barlaser they would take a look at him in pre-season, but the 23-year-old spent two months training with the senior squad.
Barlaser will not be short of teams wanting to sign him on loan but Steve Bruce may yet want to look at him in one of the Magpies' pre-season friendlies.
