Steve Bruce has confirmed that he’ll be bringing Newcastle United academy player Daniel Barlaser into the senior squad for training.
The 23-year-old midfielder is back at Newcastle after helping Rotherham United to Championship promotion this past season.
Bruce’s side continued their preparations for Project Restart with a 2-0 win over Hull City at St James’s Park on Saturday afternoon.
The Daily Mail reported this week that Barlaser was in line for a promotion back into the senior set-up at Benton.
And speaking to the Magpies’ website, the Newcastle manager has confirmed that Barlaser – and highly-rated Kelland Watts – will be training with the big boys going forward, despite never seeing him play.
He said: “We’re bringing four or five young players to come and train with us. The two lads on loan [Watts and Barlaser] I was going to look at in pre-season. We don’t even know when the next pre-season is going to be. I’ve never seen Barlaser play but he’s had a good report down in Rotherham and let’s give him the opportunity to come and train with the players.”
Barlaser is ineligible to play in any of Newcastle’s last nine competitive games, but Watts, who’s in Bruce’s Premier League squad, could.
Ordinarily he would not have been permitted because he has represented two different clubs during the 2019-20 campaign – Mansfield and Stevenage – but The Chronicle reported on Saturday that FIFA have modified the rule to allow players to turn out for three teams.
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