Newcastle United have sent 'a couple of welfare officers' to Blackpool to watch Elias Sorensen train as he looks to get his loan spell back on track.

The Danish youngster has played little more than half an hour of football since completing his loan move to Bloomfield Road and you have to go back to January 29 for his one and only appearance for the Tangerines.

Sorensen failed to make the match day squad for Saturday's draw with Charlton at the Valley because more senior options were selected ahead of him and because he was not a club-developed player.

Manager Terry McPhillips named just six of his seven permitted substitutes on the bench because a club-developed player - a must in match day squads in the Football League - was unavailable on the day.

ChronicleLive revealed Sorensen did travel with the squad to London, and took part in a full pre-match warm-up, but tellingly Nathan Delfouneso and Joe Dodoo were selected ahead of him on the bench, with Armand Gnanduillet starting up front.

And McPhillips has since revealed that Newcastle welfare officers have paid him a visit.

"I speak to the Newcastle under-23 coach [Ben Dawson] who I know anyway and he’s sound as a pound," he told reporters. "I tell him where Elias is up to.

"They’ve had a couple of welfare officers here today to meet us and to watch the training, which they’ve done."

Sorensen had been in red-hot form before moving to Blackpool for his first taste of men's football. As well as scoring 19 goals for Newcastle's under-23s this season, the striker had bagged two goals in two games for Denmark's under-21s last month.

McPhillips hoped the teenager would have a 'similar impact' to Sean Longstaff at Bloomfield Road and Sorensen spoke to the midfielder about his spell at Blackpool last season.

But the manager insists there are no problems between the pair after he was left out at the weekend.

"There was no issue," he added. "Some good players have missed out on squads. I think the week before Chris Taylor and Michael Nottingham missed out.

“If we get a couple of players back I’ll have the same problem this weekend, so I don’t know who will miss out but someone will have to.

"It’s not the nice part of the job but it is part of the job."