SANDRO TONALI is currently still available to face Wolves tomorrow – with FIFA yet to formally ratify the ban that was imposed by the Italian authorities yesterday.

The Italian Football Federation issued a detailed statement yesterday afternoon revealing that Tonali had been suspended for an 18-month period, with eight months of the sentence suspended, meaning he will be unable to play in any competitive game for a ten-month spell.

However, while the Italian authorities presented the ban as a fait accompli, Newcastle are yet to be formally informed of exactly what has been imposed and when it is expected to begin.

FIFA have to ratify the ban, and for that to happen, there has to be a dialogue between the global authority and the Italian Federation.

As a result, Eddie Howe is planning to name Tonali in his squad to face Wolves at Molineux, and is even considering naming the Italian in his starting line-up given Newcastle’s mounting injury list in midfield and attack.

Howe said: “It’s a difficult one because we haven’t had official confirmation as a football club yet. We’ve heard the news, sort of speculation via the statement, but we haven’t had anything from the Italian authorities at the moment. So, we’re sort of in limbo at the moment, waiting for that official confirmation to come through.

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“There’s a high chance that he could be available for us again. There’s a few things that I think still have to happen before the ban is imposed. So, let’s see.”

The uncertainty over Tonali’s status is hardly ideal as Howe attempts to prepare his team in a condensed two-day period between Wednesday’s Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund and tomorrow’s game at Wolves.

The entire Tonali saga has played out in public in Italy, with snippets of news and speculation emerging before they were publicly released or confirmed, and Howe admits he has had to get used to dealing with a large amount of confusion.

Howe said: “I’m slightly removed from everything because I’m focused on training and game preparation. Then you come back and hear little bits of snippets of news about how things are going.

“I’ve sort of come to mentally accept that now. I’ve had to accept that, with the situation, I’m not going to know what’s going on and I’ll probably hear it a bit further down the line, and I’m going to be without Sandro for a long time at some point, but when that is, we don’t quite know. Once you mentally accept that, I can handle it and focus on the players that I do have.”