Rafael Benitez says Fabian Schar is back in Newcastle training after head injury

Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez refused to be drawn into a war of words over defender Fabian Schar's head injury.

Schar was allowed to play on despite briefly losing consciousness following a clash of heads during Switzerland's 2-0 European Qualifier victory in Georgia last Saturday.

He is suspended for Newcastle's trip to Arsenal on Monday Night Football but Benitez says he has suffered no lasting effects.

"We take these things very seriously," said Benitez.

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"He had a test over there and another here to be sure he is fine. He is okay. I will not create something. We took care of that, we tried to do the right things."

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Asked if he was disappointed that Schar had been allowed to continue, Benitez replied: "It's important not to say too much. We know what we have to do and we did it, and that's it."

Benitez will be without midfielder Sean Longstaff for the trip to the Emirates Stadium as he continues his recovery from knee ligament damage, but hopes the rest of his squad will be available.

"The international break is always quite complicated for us, especially at this stage of the season," said the Spaniard.

"You can see a lot of injuries because the players are tired, the national teams are playing for something and are pushing players.

"We have some knocks but Sean Longstaff is the only one who is injured at the moment. Fabian had another test this morning [Friday] and he was fine. He was training lightly with the team.

"At the moment I think they will be fine but we have Christian Atu, DeAndre Yedlin and Miguel Almiron coming back today. We need to be sure they are okay."

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