Yoane Wissa is still not ready to make regular starts for Newcastle but Eddie Howe is keen to find the Congolese striker more opportunities in the coming weeks.

Wissa has had an injury-hit start to life on Tyneside after his £50m switch from Brentford in the summer, damaging knee ligaments while on international duty in September, and had to wait until December 8 to make his debut as a substitute against Burnley.

He came off the bench again to make his sixth appearance in the Boxing Day defeat at Manchester United, but has still only made one start – playing 72 minutes in the 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Fulham on December 17.

“I think with Yoane, we’ve got to look after him, he’s still relatively early in his return,” Howe said. “He did really well in his one start against Fulham, I was really pleased with him that day and there’ll be other opportunities.

“The problem for us is with our schedule playing every three, four days, I don’t think he’s in a condition where he could start regularly at the moment. Hopefully we can manage him to that point at some stage.”

Newcastle signed Wissa alongside Nick Woltemade in a summer that saw them overhaul their attack as Alexander Isak left for Liverpool, but Howe admitted he is still concerned about the number of goals in his side as the January window approaches.

“We’re always analysing the squad and seeing where any potential weaknesses are and the areas we can improve,” he said.

“Certainly the numbers in terms of goals scored, chance creation, aren’t where we want it to be, so that’s something I’ll reflect on.”