Newcastle confirm 25-man squad as Benitez and Bruce buys won't play for club again this season

Jamal Lewis, Isaac Hayden and Ciaran Clark won't play again for Newcastle United this season after the trio were left of out Eddie Howe's squad for the second half of the campaign.

Although Freddie Woodman and Jeff Hendrick had already gone out on loan, to Bournemouth and QPR respectively, Howe had to omit another three fringe players from his squad following the arrival of Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood, Bruno Guimaraes, Matt Targett and Dan Burn last month.

Newcastle have now confirmed that Lewis, who only completed a £15m move to St James' Park in the summer of 2020; Clark, who has made 127 appearances for the club; and Hayden, who suffered a knee injury in December, are the unlucky trio.

Lewis' omission, perhaps, comes as the biggest surprise but the Northern Ireland international has not featured since recovering from an hamstring injury he suffered just as he nailed down a spot under Howe in December.

Howe has instead plumped for the experience of Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett in reserve while Burn can also cover at left-back if needed.

Burn's arrival left Clark's place in the squad in real jeopardy after the centre-back's poor form under Howe while Hayden was also going to potentially struggle for game time after Guimaraes joined the club.

It is hard to see the injured Hayden even having the chance to go out on loan, but Clark and Lewis will still have the option of moving abroad to get some game time if they so wish.

Otherwise, the pair will essentially be training players for the rest of the campaign before having the opportunity to reassess their options in the summer.

Although Europe's major leagues are all closed for business, any unregistered players still have the chance to move to: Austria by Monday; Turkey