Newcastle boss Steve Bruce will be without a "big chunk" of his squad for Saturday's game with West Brom because of the club's coronavirus outbreak.
The Magpies' match against Aston Villa on 4 December was postponed because of a rise in cases, and their training ground was shut down for over a week.
Bruce would not reveal how many players had the virus, but said it was a "significant number" of people.
He also mentioned two staff who are "really poorly".
Bruce explained: “It’s been a very difficult week, but we are far better than where we were last Monday.