Colo could make Rovers return
FITNESS FIGHT ... Fabricio Coloccini.
FABRICIO Coloccini is winning his battle to fit for Newcastle United’s visit to Ewood Park.
However, Alan Pardew is still waiting to hear if Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse will be back in time to face Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday night.
Coloccini missed Saturday’s 1-0 FA Cup defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion with a groin injury.
James Perch deputised for Coloccini at the Amex Stadium, where Will Buckley’s second-half goal was the difference between the two sides.
However, Pardew is confident Coloccini, pictured right, will be available when the club returns to Premier League action.
Asked if Coloccini would be fit to face Blackburn, Pardew said: “I hope so – it’s a slight groin problem.”
Ba and Cisse’s involvement in the African Cup of Nations is now at an end, Senegal having last night lost their final group game against Libya.
And the strikers today left Equatorial Guinea, with Pardew hopeful the pair will be back on Tyneside tomorrow.
The club has attempted to hasten their return by petitioning the Senegal Football Federation.
However, the timescale is tight and fans could have to wait until Sunday, when Newcastle take on Aston Villa at St James’s Park, to get their first glimpse of Cisse in a black and white shirt.
“We have to see what their criteria is, but we’re hopeful – Tuesday’s still the target,” Pardew told the Gazette.”
United, knocked out of the Carling Cup at Ewood Park earlier this season, could have dropped down to seventh place by the time they face Blackburn, with Liverpool, a point behind them in the Premier League table, in action at Wolverhampton Wanderers tomorrow night.
The fixture is followed by a home game against Aston Villa on Sunday and the challenge for Newcastle is now to stay in the top six.
“This is an important period for us,” Pardew said. “We know if we can get three or four points out of the next two games and the core of the team returns, who knows?”
Meanwhile, Pardew has defended last week’s mid-season break in Tenerife.
Pardew and members of his squad were yesterday pictured in a newspaper enjoying a night out on the Canary Island.
However, he doesn’t think the trip, a team-bonding exercise, was a contributory factor to the club’s FA Cup defeat.
“I don’t think there’s any correlation with that at all, to be honest,” he said.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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