Antonio Conte will hope his side can get three points at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when Eddie Howe's squad travel to N17 on Sunday. When Spurs played Newcastle earlier in the season, goals from Son Heung-min, Harry Kane and Tanguy Ndombele secured a 3-2 victory, ahead of the Italian's arrival.
The Lilywhites are now very much in the battle for a top-four spot, currently sitting three points behind fourth-placed Arsenal. Tottenham's north London rivals do have a game in hand but also face, on paper, a much more difficult final stretch of games in the Premier League season.
All Conte can do is focus on his side's performances and help lead them to maximum points in their final nine games of the campaign. After success and struggles for his players who went on international duty, the Italian will hope they all return to Hotspur Way unscathed.
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Tottenham will be without Japhet Tanganga for the rest of the season, which the club revealed ahead of the international break. Oliver Skipp and Ryan Sessegnon have both been working to recover from their injuries and Conte is likely to give an update on the dup in his pre-match press conference on Friday.
Rodrigo Bentancur, Davinson Sanchez and Cristian Romero's nations all had their final games of the break during the early hours of Thursday morning. However, with only the former playing for his country and Spurs' Premier League action not resuming until Sunday, the 52-year-old will hope the trio return in good time to prepare for the tie.
The Magpies could also face some absences when they travel South for the game in N17. Spurs won't get to see their former defender Kieran Trippier, in a Newcastle shirt on Sunday, after his metatarsal fracture last month will keep him out for at least a few more weeks.
Martin Dubravka has started every game in goal for Howe's side, since the end of November, but Newcastle will have to assess whether they will be without him on Sunday. The Slovakian missed his country's international games during the break due to illness.
With an early return to Tyneside, it is uncertain whether he will be available for selection. This is the same case for Fabian Schar.
The defender picked up a knock during the international break, suffering an abductor injury, which forced him to pull out of Switzerland's trip to Wembley. Although his omission was said to be precautionary, he will be another that Newcastle have to assess ahead of Sunday's tie.
There are a few players who were still absent in training pictures Newcastle released on Wednesday, after their international duty. Bruno Guimaraes played 90 minutes for Brazil in their 4-0 victory over Bolivia on Wednesday.
Emil Krafth also played 90 minutes for his Sweden side that lost 2-0 to Poland on Tuesday. Chris Wood scored for New Zealand when they beat Solomon Islands 5-0 on Wednesday, of which he played 84 minutes.
Miguel Almiron scored and played the full game in his country's 3-1 win against Ecuador last Thursday but was left out of the matchday squad in Paraguay's match on Wednesday. All four players will be returning to the Newcastle camp in the next few days.
However their availability isn't yet confirmed as by the time they have arrived back at their club, settled back in, and began to prepare for the game, it will be time to travel down South. Therefore it will be a waiting game to see who Howe has available to him.
A few of the Newcastle youngsters were spotted in training this week, but the 44-year-old will hope he can have his strongest available squad, to give his side every chance of getting maximum points on their trip to N17. Conte has continued to work with his players who remained at the Tottenham camp and will be welcoming the rest of his squad back, in their preparations for a much-needed three points.
