Eddie Howe's team news update: Hall and Joelinton latest ahead of Hammers clash | OneFootball

The Magpies welcome the relegation-threatened Hammers to St. James' Park for a game which could have significant implications on the visitors' survival hopes.

And United head coach Howe wants his charges to focus on their own display this weekend as they look to give the home faithful something to celebrate before bringing the curtain down on the campaign at Fulham next week.

At his pre-match media briefing on Friday morning, Howe revealed that Joelinton was a doubt for the game against Nuno Espírito Santo's men, and also paid tribute to Kieran Trippier ahead of his final game at St. James'.

Here are some of the main talking points:

On Sunday's game...

"It's massive for us. There's no part of me that thinks any different. (It's) the last home game of the season and it's really, really important from our perspective that we finish the season with a positive feeling, and we show our supporters how important every game is to us. We pride ourselves on that.

"There'll be no part of our preparation that will be any different. We've trained every day this week, we've trained hard, we've trained well. I'm pleased with how the players look. We've been competitive, and we need that competitive edge. We have to do ourselves justice first and foremost, without thinking about anyone else."

On the fitness of Lewis Hall and Joelinton...

"Lewis is fine, he's trained this week. We've got no problems with his fitness.

"We've got a doubt over Joelinton, who has a slight thigh problem, so we'll assess him in the next couple of days."

On Trippier...

"I think he's definitely deserving of that recognition. The actual decision to come here in the first place needs to be celebrated because he's gone from a team that was hugely successful in Spain to a team that was fighting relegation in the Premier League. Everyone said it was financially motivated initially but I can tell that it wasn't. I think it was a host of reasons and only Kieran can discuss those, but certainly financial wasn't one of them. (It was) the challenge of returning to the Premier League, hopefully Jason (Tindall) and I played a part in that with our relationship, and wanting to take that fight on in his career position was probably a big risk, but he took it on and I'm so pleased for him that it was rewarded because there was no guarantee that that was going to be the case.

"The team stayed up and of course then never looked back. It was strange because a lot of people forget that he got injured initially and didn't really contribute on the pitch as he would have wanted to initially in our fight against relegation - it was more the next season where he then played an unbelievable part in our run to the Champions League where we lost, I think, four games that season. He was pivotal with the rest of the back four that were magnificent that year, with Nick Pope behind them, that transformed our defensive output.

"And that's probably my biggest memory of him and then, along with the cup final win, where I thought he was magnificent that day - an absolutely gigantic performance, and he got the feeling of lifting the cup with Bruno (Guimarães) and Jamaal (Lascelles)."

On Hall's nomination for the Premier League Young Player of the Season award...

"I think he's had a really good season. He started the season, if I remember this right, recovering from his injury I think, and then proved his fitness and gained strength throughout the season.

"He had a really, really good middle part of the season, where he was very consistent, played regularly, looked physically really good in amongst the period where we were playing loads of games. He really contributed and put in some eye-catching displays. He would be a worthy winner."