Newcastle will welcome back Fabricio Coloccini, Papiss Cisse and Jonas Gutierrez for the game tonight against Maritimo, in Group D of the Europa League, and a win can see us qualify for the knock-out rounds of that competition.
Fabricio Coloccini – will lead the side out tonight
Coloccini still has one league game to serve in the three match ban he picked up when he was sent off at Liverpool, and Papiss Cisse is now free to play after the Senegal Football Federation blocked him playing on Sunday, because he didn’t travel to Niger for Senegal’s mid-week friendly game because of a back injury, and that was a bizarre decision, to say the least.
And Jonas Gutierrez is available to play now that he has quickly recovered from the knee injury he picked up against West Ham a couple of weeks ago, and had to leave the field after only 25 minutes.
Those three players will add some much wanted experience to the side, and that was sadly missing in our defeat to Swansea at home on Sunday afternoon.
But Shola Ameobi is a doubt for the game tonight, and the Nigerian International has another one of those niggly little injuries he seems to pick up – this time to his groin.
Midfielder Cheick Tiote is suspended for the game tonight, and this will be the fourth game he’s missed through suspension this season so far, after picking up a yellow card in our last game at Club Brugge.
We’d be surprised if Cisse or Gutierrez play the full game tonight, because they will be needed for our tough game at Southampton on Sunday afternoon.
And Yohan Cabaye will undergo minor surgery on his groin on tomorrow or on Monday, and he will be out for a few weeks, but could return to the side before the end of the year.
We need to get back to our winning ways tonight – it’s as simple as that.
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41 comments so far
Graeme
Nov 22, 2012 at 11:04 AM
Comment #41TADS – Skyfall was brilliant; I saw it last week with my daughter, its well worth seeing