Sunday 10 September 2017 18:45, UK
Newcastle match-winner Jamaal Lascelles revealed Rafa Benitez was in touch with some pre-match words before their win over Swansea on Sunday.
Benitez missed the Premier League trip to south Wales as he continues to recover from an operation.
The club had arranged to put on a helicopter to fly him to and from his home in Merseyside following hernia surgery, but the Spaniard, who had been treated for an infection, felt too unwell.
Without Benitez in the dugout, Newcastle emerged as 1-0 winners thanks to a second-half header from captain Lascelles, who revealed Benitez had contacted him earlier in the day.
"He rang me this morning and said make sure the boys are on it and start well," the defender told Sky Sports. "He was there watching and hopefully he is back soon and can join us."
Lascelles also admitted that he was at fault for Swansea's best chance of the game, when he had to slide and block a shot from Tammy Abraham on the line.
"He shouldn't have been in that position, I got caught ball watching, but fortunately I made up for it," he said. "It was a great team performance, we had the same mentality as against West Ham [3-0 win] and we have set the standard and need to keep that.
"I said at the start of the season we need to do well at home and get the fans going and get them behind us and then we will be hard to beat, but if we play like this every week we will do well.
"It's down to us, we can play good football and beat the good teams, and we need to bring it every week and today we did."
