Newcastle welcome Athletic Club to St. James' Park tonight on the back of a disappointing 3-1 defeat by West Ham United last weekend.
Eddie Howe's side were deservedly beaten at the London Stadium as the Hammers picked up a first home win for 248 days.
Several Newcastle players were below their usual level in the capital and earlier this week it was revealed that captain Bruno Guimaraes missed training due to illness.
Newcastle's Champions League opponents Athletic Club suffer triple injury blow
The Magpies are hopeful of getting back to winning ways on home turf, where they have been especially strong under Howe, against their Basque visitors on Wednesday night.
Athletic Club are 11th in LaLiga and have lost three of their last five league matches. Ernesto Valverde's men have won one and lost two in the Champions League this term, defeating Qarabag FK last time out, but have fallen against Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund.
Athletic will be without three key players for the trip to the north-east of England, though, as the club revealed their travelling squad on Tuesday.
Spain international Nico Williams (groin), forward Oihan Sancet (hamstring) and experienced defender Yuri Berchiche (calf) are all absent for the fixture.
This is potentially significant news for Newcastle if their Brazilian skipper is unable to overcome illness and prove his fitness.
Newcastle were already favourites for this game, and will be expected to collect all three points given Athletic Club's new injured trio will play no part.
Athletic's 23-man squad list is as follows: Unai Simón, Padilla, Santos, Gorosabel, Vivian, Paredes, Vesga, Berenguer, Guruzeta, Areso, Laporte, I. Lekue, Ruiz de Galarreta, Jauregizar, Adama, Unai G., Nico Serrano, Navarro, Rego, Hierro, Ibon Sánchez, Izagirre and Selton.
In FourFourTwo's opinion, Newcastle should now be considered strong favourites for the fixture.
Williams, in particular, is an extremely talented wide forward and could have caused major problems for Newcastle's remaining options in the already-depleted full-back positions.
