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Steve Bruce makes a worrying statement at Newcastle United

Steve Bruce makes a worrying statement at Newcastle United ahead of their game against West Brom which takes place on Saturday afternoon.

It will be the first time the Magpies play this month after their game against Aston Villa, initially scheduled for the 4th of December, was postponed because of a rise in coronavirus cases, with their training ground was shut down for over a week.

Steve Bruce has since revealed his concern for two “poorly” staff members who have been laid low by the infections.

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It was also stated that Newcastle will be without a “big chunk” of his squad for the Premier League fixture.

United’s head coach wouldn’t reveal how many players had been affected by the outbreak, though he did say a “significant” number of players and staff had tested positive over the past fortnight.

As Bruce said, two staff members have been badly affected. “I’ve got one or two staff who are really poorly with it – we hope that they’re going to be OK,” said Bruce.

There will be players who have completed their 10-day isolation periods remain fatigued and therefore won’t be involved against Slaven Bilic’s side.

“Of course, (the player are) young and fit,” said Bruce. “A lot of asymptotic (cases), who its just washed over. But they’ve still got it. That’s the difficulty in managing it.

“A lot of the players have got it, and don’t know they’ve got it. That’s obviously the difficulty. It’s a little it easier when they’ve got symptoms. A lot of the players didn’t have symptoms, but we had one or two who have been severely fatigued. That’s one thing we’ve noted over the last few days.”

Bruce has praised how the club have dealt the outbreak. The training ground was re-opened on Wednesday following another round of testing.

“It’s been a significant number of people, and I’ve got two members of staff who are poorly at the minute, sick, so we hope that they’re OK,” said Bruce.

“The club has done everything it can for the welfare of the players and staff. I feel like a doctor this week rather than a football manager. It’s been really, really difficult. It’s been so difficult.”

Bruce says that he is feeling fine in himself and is looking forward to getting back to normal with football life.

West Brom boss Slaven Bilic, who tested positive for coronavirus in November, suggested there is little risk in the game being played – as the league would put the interests and safety of the players first, should the outbreak not be under control.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, Bilic said: “They (Newcastle United and the Premier League) do not have any doubts.

“They wouldn’t risk the safety of the players if there was any doubt.

“It’s not good for Newcastle, but we had eight players (out) with Covid recently and coped with it. We don’t expect those who are unfit to start.”

Discussing his own experiences with the virus among the West Brom squad, he continued: “Only Branislav Ivanovic and Jake Livermore felt weak enough that they needed more time to recover. Others you felt it was almost a mistake that that’d tested positive (because they had no symptoms).”

West Brom manager Slaven Bilic has been given one game, which is against Newcastle United to save his job, according to reports.

Various articles claim that he is ‘facing the sack if West Brom fail to get a result against the Magpies after the shocking collapse at home to Crystal Palace’, with Baggies one point off safety.

They have only taken six points from 11 games played this season, leaving them second from bottom in the Premier League table.

The Baggies fell to an embarrassing 5-1 home defeat against Roy Hodgson’s side at the weekend, falling apart after the controversial sending off of Matheus Pereira at 1-1, and it has raised fresh questions over the Croatian boss’ future.

He now needs a result against Newcastle on Saturday if he is to avoid the sack, according to The Mirror.

It’s not the first time this season that Bilic was on the brink of losing his job at West Brom as last month it was first reported that his future is under consideration months after winning promotion back to the big time.

West Brom manager Slaven Bilic said after the hammering: “It is a big frustration for us, it was a key moment in the game. We conceded a cheap own-goal from the free-kick and we came back, we played good, we equalised, we were on top of the game and that moment was the key moment.

“At least he [the VAR referee Michael Oliver] gave him [the on-field referee Paul Tierney] an option so I can’t have any complaints. It wasn’t a kick but he can’t do that on this level – you can’t do that on any level. He could get away with a yellow card but he gave the option to the referee and VAR.

“He’ll be a big miss because he’s playing good as a whole team, we saw that in the first half. For us to be competitive and have chances in every game, we have to be 11 vs 11, we have to make situations with two against one in our favour.

“When you’re down to ten men, it’s not only tactically, but it’s psychologically that it affected us big time. But I’m not happy how we collapsed after they scored the third one.

“There was a situation just before the second goal that was very interesting for me in our box when I think it was a penalty [after McArthur fouled Gallagher] and it should have been given to us – but it wasn’t.

“So a very good first half, a good performance but 5-1 is a heavy defeat for us.”

He added: “We conceded five goals and it is unacceptable no matter if you are one man down.

“Our reaction was a really disappointing one. It was too easy for them, we didn’t mark.

“OK we were one man down and you can’t stop them getting close to your final third.

“But then you should have enough players to defend.

“Everybody was relying on their team-mate to do the job without man marking.

“It was more up to them how many they were going to score.”

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