Steve Bruce names Newcastle United player who was bed-ridden by Covid-19

The Newcastle United midfielder was fielded in defence in yesterday’s 2-1 win at St James’s Park.

Hayden, 25, had missed the club’s 2-0 win over Crystal Palace after being laid low for 10 days by coronavirus.

Two other unnamed players in Bruce’s starting XI had also tested positive for Covid-19 late last month.

“I didn’t think I would have him until last Monday, so for him to get out of bed and produce a performance like that was great to see,” said head coach Bruce, who was without a "big chunk” of his squad following a Covid-19 outbreak at the club.

“Isaac was in bed for 10 days, and inevitably the three I was checking were the three who had the virus. You can be negative, but the fatigue is key to it – and the magnitude and the way it ripped through everybody was frightening.”

Miguel Almiron and substitute Dwight Gayle, making his first appearance of the season, were on target for United.

“I can't give enough credit to the players and the staff,” said Bruce. “They have worked tirelessly behind the scenes over the last couple of weeks, and, certainly the medical department's decision to shut us down was spot on.

“We had three players who played today who had the virus, but it is about the after-effects – and the way they recover.

“We've still got two or three who are poorly with it now, so I'm delighted for everyone concerned, because it's been a really challenging 10 days or so.”

West Brom manager Slaven Bilic said: “It’s about the result of course, but today we showed again that we were there in the game to the end. We showed the character and the mentality, and the quality to some degree, and the team’s very much alive.”

Almiron opened the scoring with just 20 seconds on the clock.

Bilic said: “It was a game of little margins in the end – they scored incredibly early from a situation from which we had to do better, and after that, their physicality and quality up front was better than ours.”