Newcastle United benefitting from America tour - Carver

Newcastle United assistant boss John Carver has said his side are benefitting from their pre-season tour of North America despite the heat.

Over the past week the team have had to train in extreme humidity, with the temperature in the 0-0 draw with Sporting Kansas City reaching 35C.

Carver said: "It's been tough over the last two or three days but I guarantee the lads will feel the benefit from it.

"I've told the guys that the next two games will be tough if not tougher."

The Magpies will face Orlando City on 23 July and Columbus Crew on 26 July.

Carver conceded that the team will not benefit as much as he and manager Alan Pardew had hoped with Joey Barton, Nile Ranger and Yohan Cabaye all being refused visas for the pre-season tour.

He said: "The unfortunate thing is we've got five or six senior players in Holland with our reserve team.

"Three couldn't get into the country, one or two of the other lads are coming back from injury so we felt that it was a must that they went over there to get some training under their belt before they actually played any games so it wasn't worth bring them out over here with us."

He added that he believes the Magpies squad still needs bolstering, an issue highlighted by midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa's return to England after picking up an ankle injury in the draw with Kansas.

"The squad's being built up. Yeah we do need one or two more additions I think, but there's still a good way to go before the season starts," he said.

I hope they have benefit or will benefit from it in the long run but I could have thought of better places to go than somewhere with 10 million degree heat that is an energy zapper even walking never mind running.lol