Al Hilal are reported to have “explored” the possibility of signing Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak. It comes at the same time as an explosion in speculation about his future after appearing to train away from the rest of the Magpies squad this week.

Isak finished second only to Mohamed Salah in last season’s Premier League Golden Boot race and was courted by Liverpool earlier this month to boost their already stacked forward line.

The Reds are poised to land Hugo Ekitiké from Eintracht Frankfurt in a deal expected to exceed £82.3 million ($110.5 million) if all add-ons are triggered. It likely removes the threat of Liverpool poaching the Sweden international, even if they still have room to manoeuvre financially, but it doesn’t fully mean Isak is guaranteed to stay at Newcastle, who want to offer him a new contract.

Al Hilal, quarterfinalists at the recent FIFA Club World Cup, have “gathered information about the financial details” needed for any Isak approach, per ESPN.

New head coach Simone Inzaghi would be interested in recruiting Isak, but a transfer has only been discussed internally at Al Hilal, with no “formal contact” with Newcastle yet, nor any indication as to whether Isak would reciprocate that interest.

It is accepted in Saudi Arabia that luring Isak out of Europe would be “complicated”.

Isak wasn’t involved in Newcastle’s friendly defeat to Celtic at the weekend, with manager Eddie Howe admitting that he’d been sent home to remove him from scrutiny and the spotlight.

On Tuesday, a fan uploaded an image to social media that appeared to show Isak training by himself, away from the rest of the squad. That supporter made the speculative assumption “that’s him away to Liverpool”, despite the Reds making progress with Ekitiké.

“I think it’s difficult for me to give 100% clarity on any player,” Howe said on Saturday. “I’d never sit here and do that because it’s football and you never know what can happen. But Alex is happy at Newcastle. He loves the players he plays with, the staff, the team and I’ve never had any issue with him. The last thing Alex wants if he is not playing is to be sat in the stand and under that scrutiny, then if he wasn’t going to play today, we mutually agreed he shouldn’t be here.”

Howe went on to also say that Isak is “fit but not ready to play” and that Newcastle “didn’t want to take the risk”. That ties into a local report on the situation suggesting that Isak has had a thigh scan after feeling discomfort. Although the scan came back clear, he was reportedly left to do individual work as a precaution, which is not uncommon, as was also the case for Lewis Hall.

Newcastle are due to fly to Singapore later this week and, if Isak were to be absent from that trip, it would be a much more concrete indicator that his future is in doubt.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Alexander Isak: New Suitor ‘Explores’ Deal for Liverpool Target.

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