Sunderland visit St. James' Park (kick-off 12pm GMT) four days on from the Magpies' Champions League exit in Barcelona at the round of 16 stage, with Tonali having started at the Spotify Camp Nou after recovering from illness.

The Italian midfielder was withdrawn ten minutes into the second half in Catalonia, though, and is now a doubt for the hotly-anticipated derby clash on Tyneside.

Head coach Howe says he will give the 25-year-old every chance to prove his fitness before the game against Régis Le Bris' men, while Lewis Miley and Bruno Guimarães remain further away from a return.

Here are some of the main talking points from Friday morning's pre-match media briefing:

On injury issues in the United squad...

"We will wait and see (on Tonali). It is maybe not as bad as first feared as he was coming off the pitch.

"We will see how he is today and then make a decision closer to the game.

"(Miley) will be after the internationals, hopefully after the break. Fingers crossed it will be the same with Bruno and also for Fab (Schär)."

On mental preparation for the derby...

"We have a bit of work to do, psychologically, with the players off the back of what was a really strange game to digest and review.

"I think the players will hopefully have learned from a lot of similar games this season, in the respect of we've had a crazy group of games where we've had to leave one game very quickly and focus on the next. That's a skill, I think, to be able to park it and move onto the next one.

"We have to do that really quickly and effectively because the game will be on us before we know it. It's a 12 o'clock kick-off, a very quick turnaround. There's a bit of work to do today and tomorrow with the players."

On Sunderland...

"Sunderland have had a good season. The jump from Championship to the Premier League is big.

"We know how tough the game was against them earlier in the season. We need to use that experience of the first game, the emotions we felt afterwards. We are focused on delivering a really good performance."

On the "need to perform"...

"We need to perform. The positives of this game for us can be huge, for the fans, for the city. We need to make sure our preparation for this game is as good as we can be to make sure we help the players.

"The focus for us is to try and win the game. For us, we have to try and recover physically and mentally.

"The players will be ready for this game. We have eight massive games to go."