EDDIE HOWE is confident Alexander Isak did not suffer a long-term injury in Saturday’s draw with Crystal Palace, but the Newcastle head coach stopped short of guaranteeing the striker’s availability for tomorrow’s home game with Liverpool.

Isak suffered a hip injury in a first-half challenge from Tyrick Mitchell and was forced off after just 23 minutes of the Magpies’ weekend game at Selhurst Park.

The Swede conducted an interview with beIN Sports yesterday in which he expressed confidence he would be able to play against Liverpool, but he is yet to complete a full training session since suffering the knock to his hip.

Howe is hoping Newcastle’s leading scorer will be able to line up against the Premier League leaders tomorrow, but claims that is yet not guaranteed.

“He took a knock to his hip and wasn’t able to carry on (at Palace),” said Howe. “We haven’t seen him in training yet, but I don’t think it’s a long-term injury. We’ll wait and see. It’ll be time, pain management and how the injury settles down.”

In the wake of the game at Selhurst Park, Howe also revealed that Dan Burn has been nursing an ankle problem that almost forced him to sit things out against Palace.

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The centre-half came through Saturday’s draw unscathed, and is expected to resume his partnership with Fabian Schar tomorrow as Newcastle look to contain a Liverpool side who have scored 13 goals in their six away matches in the league so far this season.

“Dan got through the game really well,” said Howe. “When he got suspended, we used that as a chance to try to rest his ankle and get him 100 per cent fit.

“He had a mixed time in that period where he didn’t play – he didn’t feel right, he went to see a specialist and he had really minimal training time, so I thought he was outstanding, all things considered, against Crystal Palace. After the game, he felt okay.”