Bruce said: "Darlow's been waiting all these years... Look, he's played in the cups and played very, very well.

"We're very, very fortunate that we've got three or four good goalkeepers. The kid at Swansea [Freddie Woodman] – who we're monitoring – is doing very, very well.

"Karl is very, very decent. I see him every day. He's a very good goalkeeper, so if he gets his chance, I have no problem that he'll be a very good deputy for him."

The circumstances may be very different but Newcastle's first team coach Steve Harper knows all about waiting in line to pull on the gloves at St James' Park.

Harper, who enjoyed a two-decade playing career on Tyneside, spent much of the best part of 12 years of that serving as Shay Given's deputy.

In all, he made 199 senior appearances for the club before moving on to Hull, where he worked under Bruce, in 2013.

Asked if Harper would be able to empathise with Darlow over his lack of league football, Bruce said: "He went three or four years – yeah.

"At the time, he was an absolutely terrific goalkeeper. I remember him having a spell [on loan] at Huddersfield where he was talked about as the next England goalkeeper.

"I think his loyalty towards the club maybe got in the way of his own personal career, because he could quite easily have been a number one anywhere else. He loved the club that much."

Darlow's last top-flight outing came in a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace on February 4, 2018.

Former Sparta Prague keeper Dubravka kept a clean sheet on his debut in a 1-0 win over Manchester United a week later, and has been the man in possession ever since.