Jack Colback remains exiled from Newcastle first team as other fringe players are given fresh starts
Newcastle United midfielder Jack Colback could have made his final appearance for the club despite failing to secure a transfer in the summer
Jack Colback remains exiled from the Newcastle United first team - despite Rafa Benitez having recalled other out-of-favour players to train with his Premier League squad.
The 27-year-old appears to have played his final match for his boyhood club, even though he did not depart during the summer transfer window - and even given Paul Dummett’s injury which will keep the left-back sidelined until November.
Benitez made it clear to Colback at the start of pre-season that the midfielder would not be part of his first-team plans this season.
In fact, during the final days of the window - after Colback had failed to agree moves to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City or Hull City - Benitez stressed to the ex-Sunderland midfielder that he would continue to train with the Under-23s if he remained on Tyneside past the end of August.
While fringe players such as Henri Saivet, Jesus Gamez and Karl Darlow have been reintegrated into the first-team squad and reassured they will be given an opportunity if they impress - they could even be involved against Stoke City on Saturday - Colback does not feature in Benitez’s blueprint for the Premier League campaign.
Colback has made 94 appearances and scored five goals for Newcastle since joining the club from bitter rivals Sunderland in 2014, but it now appears highly unlikely that he will add to that tally.
“Even those players who were out of the squad in my head in the transfer window, now they are in the squad and I will try to improve them.
“That includes anyone with us. [but] Jack, he knew my ideas before and he knows my ideas now.
“It’s important for me to have a group of players, and the number of players, you can manage. Sometimes you have too many players and you have to leave some out. But to have players training on their own, I don’t think that’s a good situation.
“Instead you have to be training with a team [as Colback is with the Under-23s].”
Meanwhile, Jamaal Lascelles started the season behind Florian Lejeune and Ciaran Clark in the central-defensive pecking order, but the Magpies captain has excelled in recent weeks.
And, following his skipper’s match-winning performance at Swansea City last weekend, Benitez insists there was only ever one player he was going to award the armband to this season.
“At the beginning when I was thinking who can be captain, it was not very difficult because Jamaal was quite good last year and obviously he’s one year older,” Benitez explained.
“It’s another division, that’s true, but I think he did well and I had confidence that he could do well again.”
