Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce has confirmed two of his players are unwell due to COVID-19.

The club had an outbreak of the virus at their training ground earlier in the month.

It caused them to close the ground for a few days, and postpone their game against Aston Villa on December 4.

While Bruce did not name the unwell players or staff members, he wanted to mention the severity of the disease during his pre match press conference.

"One (of the players who had coronavirus) is back - that's Fernandez," Bruce told reporters.

"He's tested negative and I can say that because he himself revealed that he's had the virus. But he's OK now.

"(Players and staff have had) had three negative tests in the past six days so it does look as if we've overcome it. But we've got two players in particular who are not well at all and two members of staff who are still poorly.

"We're relieved that nobody else has got it but we're also concerned about the members of staff and two players who it's having a bad effect on.

"If you ever underestimated this thing then don't, because you're talking about elite professionals here and the way it got a hold of everybody was quite scary stuff.

"For everybody out there, for goodness' sake stay safe. I know it's Christmas but after what we've just witnessed then you've got to be careful."