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Injuries Easing For United Boss
Written by Newcastle Utd
Alan Pardew has given an update on his injured stars, including captain Fabricio Coloccini
By Tom Easterby
Captain Fabricio Coloccini has handed Newcastle United a boost after returning to light training this week.
The Argentine centre-half, who missed last week's 1-0 win over QPR with a calf problem, will now resume his efforts to regain full fitness under the guidance of United's medical staff at their Benton training base.
Manager Alan Pardew spoke of his delight at some much-needed good news concerning the fitness of his skipper, and confirmed that a number of other first-team players are also nearing a return.
"We've had some good news in that Coloccini is back at the training ground - Steven Taylor, Cheick Tiote, (Emmanuel) Riviere too. So there's some good news on that front," said the United boss.
"Rolando (Aarons) is not quite ready, but I think he'll be around for next week.
"It's a big week in the Premier League - three Premier League games in seven days - so it's an important spell to have all your players around.
"It is (a boost) because we've had a terrible run of injuries and kept the winning run going so it's testament to the squad - the players have been phenomenal in this spell, and even on the training ground this week it's really difficult to calm them down.
"They're really on fire, they're enjoying their football and you can see it, so we should be in a good place for Saturday."
The Magpies travel to West Ham on Saturday hoping to extend their winning run to seven games in all competitions, but will have to do so without the services of midfielder Ryan Taylor.
The former Wigan man was withdrawn early on in the win against the R's with a knee problem, but Pardew explained that, thankfully, it is not a recurrence of the successive cruciate injuries that kept the 30-year-old sidelined for 26 months.
"We think he'll be back training in three to four weeks so it's really good news for Ryan, really good news for us, and good news for our fans because they were all upset, as we were, with his withdrawal last week," said Pardew.
"But it wasn't as bad as we'd feared, so that's some positive news.
"Ryan had worked so hard to come back from the cruciates and the broken leg he's had during his career and you don't want him to suffer another major injury. But there's no bad news there - that's all good news."