It’s over to you – Eddie Howe left Jason Tindall to his own accord during leave | OneFootball

Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe has revealed he had “zero” involvement with football while he was recovering from pneumonia.

The 47-year-old was hospitalised a fortnight ago and was absent from Newcastle’s last three matches, with assistant Jason Tindall taking charge of the team.

Howe returned to work on Thursday, admitting he was not 100 per cent but delighted to be back, and was ready to prepare the Champions League-chasing Magpies for Saturday’s Premier League fixture against Ipswich at St James’ Park.

When asked about how much involvement he had with football prior to his return, Howe replied: “Zero. I made a conscious decision when I didn’t feel well enough to focus on the football to give Jason and all the coaches the full responsibility.

“Because for me, you’re either all in or all out and I couldn’t contribute.

“I said to Jason right at the start ‘it’s over to you’ and didn’t he do well? I thought he was absolutely brilliant with all the coaches and the players. I thought they were absolutely magnificent.

“I was able to watch all of the games, the first two I wasn’t really there mentally, but I was really proud and so lifted by the performances. A big thank you to everybody for what they did.”

Having been absent for those trio of fixtures, Howe revealed that as soon as he started to show signs of improvement, he did not waste any time in analysing the Tractor Boys.

He said: “When I felt well enough, the laptop was out. I think it was more a case of my mind and my body knew when that was. The laptop came out and I was watching Ipswich straight away because it’s just in-built in me.

“That was a great sign actually, because it was like ‘oh, I’m feeling better, I must be feeling better, I’m back into it’. So that was a great moment for me.”

Howe has described the final stretch of the season as a “five-game league” as his side push for a top-five spot.

Newcastle are fifth in the table, one point behind Nottingham Forest and two in front of Chelsea and Aston Villa, who they lost to last week.

“I see it being very tight and possibly going right to the end of the season in terms of the competition for the top-five places,” Howe said.

“I think we’ve put ourselves in a very strong position for what we’ve done for a consistent period of time now in the Premier League. Our record’s been very good for a long time.

“But now we sort of go into a five-game league, really, where we’re going to have to be consistent again and try and get results in some really tough games.

“We’re looking forward to the five games ahead of us, starting against Ipswich will not be easy. You look at their recent away form, it’s been strong. We can’t underestimate them in any way.”