Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe and his squad have jetted off to Portugal for the final leg of their mini European tour. The Magpies have included Matt Ritchie in their squad for the trip despite Howe admitting his future was unclear during the training camp in Austria last week.
Also on board was Federico Fernandez and Jamal Lewis who will be looking to step up their fitness after failing to feature in pre-season so far. Irish youngster Alex Murphy was on board the flight that set off for the trip to Lisbon along with Jay Turner-Cooke and Mexican U23 international Santiago René Muñoz. The 18-year-old Murphy spent time in Spain last week with the Under-21s but gets the opportunity to rub shoulders with the senior squad after arriving from Galway.
Murphy and Munoz scored in a 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers this week for the Under-21s. But now gets a chance to impress Howe and his backroom team.
Newcastle players will be hoping for better conditions than the drizzly weather they left behind on Tyneside. The Magpies are set to face Benfica on Tuesday night at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon.
A Newcastle statement read: "The Magpies are due to arrive in Lisbon on Friday evening and will continue to step up their preparations for the upcoming Premier League campaign with some warm-weather training and a behind-closed-doors training game as well as taking on Benfica, who reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League last term, in a showpiece friendly."
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