this is what got people as £12m Newcastle player not seen in training ahead of Liverpool game, he was absent on Saturday

Newcastle United were without Jacob Murphy against Manchester City on Saturday, but not because of injury.

The 28-year-old was not at the Etihad Stadium as his partner was giving birth to their second child. Afterwards, Murphy confirmed that both mother and son were fine as baby Roman was welcomed into the world.

It was obviously vital that Murphy was there with his family instead of playing against Manchester City, but it felt likely that he would be back involved for the next game. He is not known to be suffering from an injury, so there should be no reason why he misses Sunday’s contest with Liverpool.

However, the club’s latest training pictures have raised some doubt.

Jacob Murphy not seen in Newcastle training

The club have uploaded 26 photos of the players preparing to face Liverpool, and there is a couple of noticeable absentees.

Joelinton has not been spotted. He was forced off with injury last time out after a challenge on Phil Foden and is a doubt for this weekend’s game.

On top of that, there was no sighting of Jacob Murphy. That is a real surprise, as you would have expected him to be back in training.

Hopefully there are no issues and the £12million man is back to face Liverpool, as he was a big miss on Saturday. We really could have benefitted from his presence off the bench, with Miguel Almiron struggling to penetrate the Man City defence.

Instead, Howe brought on Tino Livramento to play in attack, but he was unable to have any real impact on what was his Newcastle United debut.

In an ideal world, Murphy is back in training and was just not picked up by the cameras. We will no doubt discover what is going on when Howe speaks to the media on Friday morning.