After Newcastle United star Alexander Isak missed two matches, Eddie Howe provides the latest injury fitness message about the striker

After new talks between the Sweden FA and United, it looks like the Magpies will be without Alexander Isak for at least the next two weeks.

Alex Isak, a star player for Newcastle United, is likely to miss Saturday night’s game against Everton.

With a broken toe, the £63 million scorer missed both the 1-1 draw with Man City and the Carabao Cup win over League Two’s Wimbledon. Not only that, but the Swedish FA has agreed that he won’t play in their UEFA Nations League games against Estonia and Slovakia.

That makes it very likely that Newcastle doesn’t think Isak is healthy enough to play against Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday night. When Newcastle plays Everton, they know that if they play Isak, Sweden could look at the scorer with their own doctors and decide for themselves whether to play or not.

There may have been “healthy dialogue” between the two sides, though, and Isak will likely be out until after the international games.

Eddie Howe sounded like this might happen on Monday when he said, “It was one of those situations where Alex would be fine if he could handle the pain.”

“He put up with the pain at Fulham for about 80 minutes before he realized he could feel back in that toe.” Either he would be out until after the international break, or he could play normally if he could deal with how the pain made him feel and how it affected him. He hasn’t been able to do that, so I think we’re back to the first diagnosis.

“We’re kind of keeping an eye on him every day because something might work out and he could be ready for Everton.” Of course, we need to make a choice then. Does he play in that game, or do we put him down and know he’ll be fine in two weeks?”