Mehdi Abeid traveled back to Newcastle yesterday on crutches, after he had broken a toe in training with the Algerian squad for the African Cup of Nations qualifiers, a competition Algeria has already qualified for – and which will now take place in Equatorial Guinea in January.
Mehdi Abeid on crutches over the weekend
The Newcastle medics will now look more closely at the injury, but Mehdi on his Facebook page thinks he will be out about two weeks with the injury.
And news today that Newcastle will reconsider whether to send central midfielder Gael Bigirimana out on loan because of the injury to the Algerian.
Newcastle have Vurnon Anita available in central midfield but the Dutchman has been less than convincing in a Newcastle shirt this summer, and we’ll have to wait and see if Cheick Tiote is fit after injuring his calf in the warm-up for the home game against Leicester – which turned out to be our first league win of the season.
That was almost a month ago on October 18th, so we are hoping Cheick can come in for the injured Mehdi, who has been outstanding over the last three games for the Magpies.
Newcastle have 10 games to play in all competitions through January – so that’s 10 games in just 45 days – so Newcastle may opt to keep 21 year-old Gael Bigirimana on Tyneside after all.
Newcastle recalled young defender Remie Streete from a loan spell at Port Vale last week and that was ominous since we were expecting to hear about the injuries to both Fab Coloccini and Steven Taylor.
And news last night in the Mirror was that both have injuries that will keep them out for a month – but that has not yet been confirmed by Alan Pardew.
We suppose the recall of Remie meant it was not good news on either Colo or Steven.
Then injuries are starting to show up Newcastle’s lack of depth in the squad, so it’s good that experienced Ryan Taylor is back fit again, and he could even start on Saturday, maybe at left back, although Massadio Haidara has looked solid in that position for the Magpies.
Ryan could also start in central midfield if Cheick Tiote is still not available.
Davide Santon is also on his way back and Jonas Gutierrez should be back in a couple of weeks after getting his cancer-free clearance from his doctors, and he is training in Buenos Aries at the moment.
The game against QPR on Saturday now looks to be that little bit more difficult with Colo, Steven Taylor and Mehdi Abeid all out, but at home to the second bottom side in the league is still a fixture we should be winning.
Comments welcome.
You can follow us on our three social media sites below:
2 comments so far
Sav
Nov 17, 2014 at 9:42 AM
Comment #1Expect Taylor may start right midfield rather than left-back and his crossing and dead ball skill will give us new options. HTL!
lesh
Nov 17, 2014 at 1:43 PM
Comment #2here we go. A thin squad and commitment or not from the available players, we’re gonna back in the mire by Christmas!
When will they ever learn? They won’t as long as Ashley’s got his hands on the purse strings.