Newcastle United: Waugh reveals that Gayle was nearly not included in the club’s PL squad

Chris Waugh has been speaking on the latest edition of The Athletic’s Pod On The Tyne, and he has been talking about all things Newcastle United.

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One of the topics that he spent some time on was the Toon’s Premier League squad that was submitted to the league on Tuesday, and while he was talking about this, he revealed that Dwight Gayle was nearly not included in the side.

The 30-year-old is currently out after he picked up an injury in August, and according to Waugh, there was a discussion over whether or not he should be included in the Premier League squad for the first half of the season.

It seems as if, according to Waugh, Newcastle were not sure about including Gayle because of his injury, but, in the end, they decided to because the former Crystal Palace man should be back in early December.

He said: “One of the main talking points and one of the main debating issues that I know was spoken about behind the scenes was whether Dwight Gayle should be included in the squad.

“Last season when Paul Dummett was injured and when Jetro Willems got injured, they were taken out of the squad for the second half of the season.

“Gayle, touch and go whether he will definitely be back this year, but there is a bit of a more positive prognosis over the last few weeks, and I think he may be back in early December, so he has made the squad.”