Newcastle's trip to Aston Villa on Friday is looking increasingly likely to be postponed due to a Covid-19 outbreak at the club.
Newcastle are in dialogue with the Premier League over the potential postponement of the match after their squad was told to stay away from their training ground following an outbreak of coronavirus.
Over the weekend it emerged that three individuals within the first-team bubble had tested positive for Covid-19 and, following a further round of testing on Sunday, additional players also returned positive tests.
At this stage Newcastle are yet to officially appeal to have the match postponed - but high-level talks are taking place.
Newcastle are concerned about the lack of preparation time the squad will have and feel that will give them a disadvantage.
They also have concerns over travel to a different area of the country and further potential infections.
If postponed, Aston Villa versus Newcastle would be the first Premier League match to be so as a result of the pandemic following Project Restart.