Ryan Fraser will be asked by Scotland manager Steve Clarke why he pulled out of training with the national team only to link up with Eddie Howe during his first session as Newcastle United manager, according to The Daily Mail.
What’s the latest Newcastle United injury news?
Fraser, who has never really convinced at Newcastle since joining from Bournemouth, pulled out of the latest Scotland squad ahead of their crunch World Cup Qualifiers against Moldova and Denmark.
Still, he trained under Howe on Tuesday and, as a result, Clarke is reportedly seeking answers. With Scotland needing to win and Queens Park Rangers striker Lydon Dykes suspended for a huge trip away in Moldova on Friday, Fraser’s absence will be a blow.
Why did Fraser train with Newcastle?
According to the report, there is a feeling amongst the Scotland camp that Fraser was eager to impress Howe, having left Bournemouth under a cloud in 2020 when he refused to sign a new contract following the resumption of the Premier League as the initial Covid-19 pandemic began to ease.
For his part, Howe is believed to have cleared the air on that front.
How many times has Ryan Fraser played under Howe?
Howe brought Fraser down to England in the summer of 2013 from Aberdeen and, in total, he played 208 times under the Newcastle manager’s watch.
Over those outings, the Scotsman scored 24 goals while registering 33 assists. Indeed, his best campaign came back in the 2018/19 season, during which he bagged 7 times and laid on a further 14 assists in 35 Premier League starts.
If Howe can return Fraser to even half of that sort of level, his Newcastle move may still work out.
