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Obertan In Contention For KC Trip
Written by Newcastle Utd
Winger Gabriel Obertan will be involved against Hull on Saturday after recovering from a thigh injury
By Anthony Marshall - Newcastle United Managing Editor
Newcastle United winger Gabriel Obertan will be involved against Hull City on Saturday after recovering from a thigh injury.
The French flyer hasn't kicked a ball for the first team since being stretchered off against Liverpool at the start of November.
But after 14 games and nearly three months on the sidelines, Obertan came through an hour of a midweek behind-closed-doors friendly unscathed and will now be part of the Magpies' squad at the KC Stadium.
"Gaby Obertan got 60 minutes and probably could have played a little longer," explained head coach John Carver.
"The guys in the medical department have worked so hard with him behind the scenes to get him up to this condition as quickly as they have.
"He will be involved this weekend, along with Mehdi Abeid and Davide Santon."
Another player nearing a return to action - Dutch international Siem de Jong - is not expected to be in contention at Hull, however.
"Siem had 45 minutes against Carlisle and scored, which was nice," continued Carver.
"He's trained again this morning and looks even stronger. This weekend might just be too short in terms of recovery time for him but we do have another under-21 game on Monday and he will play in that.
"He's given the group a massive boost because of his presence."
Finally, Newcastle could be boosted by the return of nine-goal leading scorer Papiss Cisse, who has been away on Africa Cup of Nations duty.
With Senegal knocked out in the group stages of the tournament, Carver is hoping the striker will report for training on Friday and make the trip to Humberside.
"We're trying to get Papiss back," he said.
"The Senegal FA haven't been too helpful and we're not very happy about that - we might take it a little bit further.
"But we are trying to get him back. Hopefully he will be back on Friday and available for the weekend."