Despite receiving a 10-month from playing football after pleading guilty to betting, Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali will be available for selection against Wolves, club manager Eddie Howe has revealed.
Gabriella Gravina, the president of the Italian Football Federation ( FIGC) on Thursday confirmed that both the player and FIGC had come to an agreement, and that the 23-year-old would be banned for the aforementioned period, but according to Howe, Newcastle is yet to receive such kind of communication.
“We’ve not had official confirmation as a football club. We’ve not had anything from the Italian authorities so we are waiting for that official confirmation to come through. There’s a high chance he could be available for us. A few things need to happen before the ban is imposed so let’s see.”
According to reports coming from Italy, the ban still needs to be stamped by the Italian authorities, and that could be done on Friday. And for Howe, they can only heed to the ban when they receive an official confirmation.
During the press conference, Howe spoke too highly of the midfielder who joined Newcastle from AC Milan for £55m in the summer.
“You saw from the Dortmund game he did very well. He’s been bright and he’s trained. The only way I can judge him is on that. He’s been good around the group and the training ground. From how I can see, he’s handling himself in the right way.
“I think I said in the press conference the other day, I can’t work with hindsight. We didn’t know this was even a possibility. There’s a frustration that we won’t have him now as I liked him as a footballer.”
If by Saturday Newcastle have not received an official communication from Italy, Tonali could feature against Wolves in the Premier League.
