“It’s a difficult one to go into too much detail on that with the players as they need to be free,” Howe said when asked about the suspension situation.

Newcastle have seven games over the next month in which Schar and Joelinton must avoid picking up a single booking or else they will face a one-match ban in the Premier League. Premier League rules state that any player who is booked five times in the opening 19 games of the league season must serve a one-match suspension.

Defender Burn served his one-match ban last time out against West Ham United having been shown his fifth yellow card of the 2024-25 Premier League season in the 3-1 win at Nottingham Forest.

With Newcastle at Crystal Palace on Saturday before playing Liverpool, Brentford, Leicester City, Ipswich, Aston Villa and Manchester United before the five-yellow card cut-off point – Howe isn’t holding out too much hope for two of his key players avoiding suspension.

But the Newcastle boss admitted withdrawing Joelinton early against West Ham with his booking situation in mind.