Yoane Wissa made his Newcastle debut after injury, returning just days before the Wear Tyne derby

Yoane Wissa made his long-awaited Newcastle United debut after returning from a knee injury, coming off the bench during the 2-1 win over Burnley at St James' Park.

The forward, who joined the club in the summer, featured for the final stages of Saturday's match, marking his first competitive minutes in around three months. Newcastle had looked comfortable at half-time through goals from Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon, while Burnley were reduced to ten men when Lucas Pires was dismissed. The visitors later threatened a late comeback when Zian Flemming converted a stoppage-time penalty, but the Magpies held on.

The victory made it ten points from a possible twelve in the Premier League since the November international break, pushing Eddie Howe's side closer to the Champions League positions after an inconsistent first few months of the season. Wissa's return adds another attacking option heading into a demanding run of fixtures. Wissa showed flashes of his quality after being introduced for the final fifteen minutes, combining well and delivering a dangerous cross across the box during a counterattack.

Speaking afterwards, Howe said the club will be careful with the 29-year-old's fitness. "Yeah, really important. I think he's done a lot of work to get to this point. He's got a lot more work to do to get to the very best level that he can. Yeah, very pleased to have him available. We hope to keep him available by managing correctly. It's difficult with the spell of games that we have to sort of train him and build his fitness with all the game schedule. So it's going to be a really delicate balance for us, but hopefully one we can find a solution to."

Newcastle now travel to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday before their Premier League derby away at Sunderland on Sunday. A Carabao Cup quarter-final against Fulham follows three days later, ahead of a home clash with Chelsea on December 20.

Howe confirmed that Wissa is not yet ready to start, but expects his workload to increase gradually. "I think once Yoane gets up to full speed, I'd say he's probably a little bit short of that at the moment, being able to start again," he said. But we'll make that decision game by game. Just having him available from the bench to share the load is crucial."

The Newcastle head coach also praised Nick Woltemade's efforts up front in recent weeks, despite the Burnley game not playing to his strengths. "Nick has done incredibly well carrying that burden on his own. It's not an easy thing to do, especially at this club with the expectations being so high. But certainly it wasn't our best game in terms of involving him. Burnley did well. They limited space. It was a very tight pitch for us, and it wasn't our finest performance."

Régis Le Bris offers injury update

Régis Le Bris says Sunderland midfielder Habib Diarra is set to miss next weekend’s Wear-Tyne derby, with the head coach admitting the fixture against Newcastle United will likely come too soon for the 21-year-old.

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Diarra has been stepping up his recovery following groin surgery earlier this season and had been in a race to return in time for the derby. While progress has been positive, Le Bris believes the timing will work against him. The Frenchman did, however, offer encouragement elsewhere, revealing that Reinildo is expected to return after sitting out the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City with a groin issue. "For Rei, it could be okay but for Habib, it would be too short, I think," Le Bris said.

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Sunderland will also have Granit Xhaka and Noah Sadiki available for the derby after both avoided a booking at the Etihad. Le Bris moved to withdraw the pair late on, protecting them for Sunday’s clash, with Romaine Mundle and Simon Adingra introduced instead.

Le Bris later explained his decision not to turn to Dan Neil was to keep attacking momentum, with Lutsharel Geertruida pushed into midfield. "Yes, because we tried to stay in the game, to provoke something," he said. "I think with offensive players on the side, it was more or less the idea. It didn't work, but we tried."

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