Emi Buendia’s two-game injury absence comes to an end for Norwich City this afternoon but the playmaker starts on the bench at Newcastle.

The Argentine attacker missed the 2-1 loss at Tottenham in the league and the 2-1 win at Burnley in the FA Cup with a thigh injury, having been nominated for the Premier League Player of the Month award for December due to his fine form.

He is back on the bench in place of Marco Stiepermann, as is Mario Vrancic following the end of Ibrahim Amadou's loan.

Otherwise it's the starting XI from that narrow loss at Spurs, with Lukas Rupp continuing on the right alongside fellow new signing Ondrej Duda in attacking midfield.

Newcastle make three changes to their team that drew 2-2 at Everton in the league prior to a disappointing 0-0 home draw wtih League One side Oxford in the FA Cup fourth round last weekend.

DeAndre Yedlin returns at right-back and Isaac Hayden moves into midfield, with the Longstaff brothers dropping out and new signing Nabil Bentaleb and speedy star Allan Saint-Maximin starting.

Two more recent signings are also on the bench in the shape of Spurs loanee Danny Rose and Inter Milan loanee Valentino Lazaro.

NEWCASTLE (5-4-1): Dubravka; Yedlin, Fernandez, Lascelles (C), Clark, Ritchie; Hayden, Bentaleb, Almiron, Saint-Maximin; Joelinton. Subs: Darlow (GK), Schar, Lejeune, Lazaro, Rose, Atsu, S Longstaff

NORWICH (4-2-3-1): Krul; Aarons, Zimmermann, Hanley (C), Byram; Tettey, McLean; Rupp; Duda, Cantwell; Pukki. Subs: Fahrmann (GK), Lewis, Vrancic, Trybull, Buendia, Hernandez, Drmic

REFEREE: Martin Atkinson

VAR: Peter Bankes

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