Newcastle United resume their Premier League campaign with a trip to Swansea City at the weekend.
The Shields Gazette reports that Florian Lejeune and DeAndre Yedlin will both be in contention for the trip to the Liberty Stadium after recovering from their respective injuries.
Yedlin has not played since pre-season due to a hamstring problem, while Lejeune’s competitive debut for the Magpies following his summer move ended after just 34 minutes after a challenge from Harry Kane in the defeat to Tottenham saw him sustain an ankle injury.
In the pair’s absence, Newcastle have endured a mixed season, having conceded six goals in their opening three games in all competitions, including twice against Spurs after Lejeune had been substituted.
But they will return to a squad that will be feeling a lot more positive having gone into the international break off the back of an emphatic win over West Ham that also saw the Magpies keep their first clean sheet of the campaign.
That performance may perhaps tempt Benitez to avoid making drastic changes to his squad, including amongst the back four especially with it being a number of weeks since either Yedlin or Lejeune have played.
With a fairly kind run of games ahead in the next few weeks – or as kind as is possible in the top flight – Benitez may feel that rushing back the pair could be more detrimental if he feels that they are at all rusty.
And thus, it may perhaps be more beneficial for Newcastle to take a more cautious approach with the likes of Lejeune and Yedlin.
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