Newcastle boss Eddie Howe says Sandro Tonali is working to a specialised training programme.

Tonali is currently serving a betting ban.

"We have spent time with him identifying areas of his game that we want to improve," Howe told reporters. "He's got a lot of time to do that so we have spent a lot of time with him doing that.

"That naturally engages your brain into what you're doing. If we had not done that and it was just random training for him that was not specialised, that's when he could potentially drift mentally.

"I have to say he has been very good in supporting his team-mates and very good in making the training sessions better for everybody. I've definitely seen an improvement in his game despite the fact he is not playing.

"It can sometimes be very difficult to improve your game without getting the match stimulus you need, but he has played in training games and bigger pitch stuff. It's important that we do that for him so athletically he does not suffer."