Sandro Tonali returned to action for Newcastle United in specially arranged game on Wednesday

3 months ago 35

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Exactly nine months ago, Sandro Tonali made his most recent Newcastle United appearance.

A 65th minute sub for Sean Longstaff in the 1-0 Champions League home defeat to Borussia Dortmund on 25 October 2023.

That followed the previous weekend’s sub appearance at St James’ Park, when Sandro Tonali also came off the bench, that is a 4-0 hammering of Crystal Palace.

Both these matches seeing Eddie Howe and Newcastle United simply awaiting news of when the suspension would start, after Sandro Tonai admitted breaking betting rules whilst playing for AC Milan.

The rules of the nine month suspension meant that Sandro Tonali could continue to train with Newcastle United but not play in any competitive match, nor indeed any match in public, including friendlies.

Ahead of the new season, it has been heavily reported that Newcastle United would be arranging at least a couple of behind-closed-doors friendlies, to allow Sandro Tonali to play some games to help further develop his progress towards his first-term return in September. The home match with Spurs (see below) the first Premier League game he will be available for.

Wednesday brought media claims that Sandro Tonali would be part of a Newcastle team that would play a (behind-closed-doors) friendly against Burnley at their Gawthorpe Training Centre. A couple of times in recent years Newcastle has played similar friendlies against Burnley away from the public eye, plenty of connections as well between the two clubs, Eddie Howe, Kieran Trippier and Nick Pope, as well as recently appointed former NUFC midfielder Scott Parker now in charge at Burnley.

No details have been made public by either club as yet, however, The Times has confirmed that indeed a Burnley v Newcastle friendly did take place, with Sandro Tonali playing in NUFC colours for the first time in nine months.

No journalists with any insight into what actually happened during the friendly, not that I have seen anyway. However, at the Burnley end of things I have seen some of their fans online claiming it was an otherwise young Newcastle United team, that played alongside Sandro Tonali. It seemingly a separate thing to the first-team squad preparing for the friendly at Hull on Saturday. As for the scoreline, I have seen any number of claims/inventions, including 3-2 to Burnley and 4-1 to Newcastle, whilst there was also a 9-1 to Burnley thrown in as well by one or two people.

As I said earlier, it had been widely reported that the intention was to have at least a couple of these behind-closed-doors friendlies/training games to help Sandro Tonali get back into the swing of things, so probably at least one more will be arranged.

Newcastle United schedule to end of September 2024:

Saturday 20 July 2024 – Newcastle 3 SpVgg Unterhaching 1

Saturday 27 July 2024 – Hull City v Newcastle United friendly, 2pm kick-off.

Wednesday 31 July 2024 – Urawa Red Diamonds v Newcastle United friendly in Japan, playing at the 62,000 capacity Saitama Stadium, the largest football-specific stadium in Japan.

Saturday 3 August 2024 – Yokohama F Marinos v Newcastle United friendly at the National Stadium in Toyko.

Friday 9 August 2024 – Newcastle United v Girona FC friendly 7.30pm kick-off (SJP Sela weekend)

Saturday 10 August 2024 – Newcastle United v Stade Brestois 4pm kick-off (SJP Sela weekend)

Wednesday 14 August 2024 – The Carabao Cup second round draw will be made around 10pm.

Saturday 17 August 2024 – Newcastle v Southampton (3pm)

Sunday 25 August 2024 – Bournemouth v Newcastle (2pm) Sky Sports

Week commencing Monday 26 August 2024 – Carabao Cup round two matches will be played

Friday 30 August 2024 – Summer transfer window closes at 11pm.

Sunday 1 September 2024 – Newcastle v Tottenham (1.30pm) Sky Sports

(The first international break of the season)

Sunday 15 September 2024 – Wolves v Newcastle (4.30 pm) Sky Sports

Weeks commencing Monday 16 September AND Monday 23 September – Carabao Cup round three (This round split over two midweeks)