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Sandro Tonali is just over a fortnight away from returning for Newcastle United.
The Italian midfielder is serving the final weeks of his 10-month betting ban which officially expires at the end of this month. Newcastle’s first league game after Tonali’s ban is lifted will be against Tottenham Hotspur on September 1, after the summer transfer window has closed.
And Newcastle chief executive officer Darren Eales believes Tonali will ‘genuinely be like a new signing’ for the club after being limited to just 12 appearances following his £52million arrival from AC Milan last summer.
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While serving his ban, Tonali has continued to train at Newcastle and even addressed supporters in English during an exclusive fan event in Tokyo earlier this month.
Reflecting on Tonali’s surprise appearance in Japan, Eales said: “It was great, wasn’t it? “I don’t think anyone in the room knew that the players were coming.
“Sandro’s English is really good, and I thought he just spoke from the heart. For me, you got a sense of what Sandro Tonali is as a player. I think he accepts that last year doesn’t almost count, that season, because of what happened.
“I think you can see just by the way he carries himself that he’s really focused for this season, and it’s a way for him to kick start his Newcastle United career.
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“We know he’s a fantastic player. He works his socks off in training, which is difficult when you’re not playing games. He’s done that. He starting to see that August 28 is fast approaching.
“It is a cliche, but he is going to be genuinely like a new signing, because this is his chance to launch his Newcastle United career. It’s exciting for him.”
Tonali hasn’t been able to feature for Newcastle in pre-season but is understood to have been involved in 11 v 11 training ground matches, including one against Burnley last month. He will miss Saturday’s Premier League opener against Southampton at St James’ Park and the trip to AFC Bournemouth the following weekend before finally returning against Spurs.
Discussing Tonali’s return, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe said: “He’s good. Mentally, I think he’s been excellent during this long period. I think he’s trained really well.
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“He’s very low maintenance for someone like me to manage the situation. I think he’s been first class. He’s been really supportive to the players that have been playing, and making sure that the team’s in the right place, ahead of himself.
“I expect, with the way he’s trained, for him to get up to speed quite quickly, but I do think there needs to be a certain amount of understanding that there’s just been no way for us to get him the games that he needs into his legs.
“Although he’s joined in every day, a lot of his training would be smaller than a match unless it’s an 11 v 11, which we would occasionally do in training. I think it probably will take him a while to get to his very best levels, but he looks fit and very focused. He’s a big player for us.”