Luque not ready for return
Newcastle winger Albert Luque will not be risked at Chelsea on Saturday as battles his way back from a torn hamstring.
Manager Graeme Souness had set his £9.5m (€14m) summer signing the target of making the trip to Stamford Bridge more than two months after picking up the injury just two games into his career on Tyneside.
However, although the former Deportivo la Coruna forward is almost there, Souness will not pitch him in just yet after previously seeing both Kieron Dyer and Emre suffer relapses following early returns.
“Albert’s not quite ready, he is still a week away,” he said. “There hasn’t been a setback of any kind. It has just taken a week longer than we thought it would.”
Luque, like skipper Alan Shearer and full-back Stephen Carr, did not travel to Spain with the majority of the Magpies’ first-team squad for a warm weather training break last week as he worked to regain full fitness back in the north-east.
However, he will now have to wait until the trip to Everton on November 29 to make his comeback after playing less than two games since heading for the Premiership in August.
The fact that Souness has teenager Charles N’Zogbia at his disposal means Luque’s return can be delayed for a few more days even for one of the club’s most difficult fixtures of the season.
N’Zogbia has played a key role in his side’s return to form in recent weeks, and the 19-year-old Frenchman demonstrated his commitment to the cause last time out when he agreed to play in the 1-0 win over Birmingham just days after the death of his father.
However, the manager will be watching £4m (€5.9m) signing Emre closely tonight when he attempts to keep his World Cup dream alive with Turkey, who trail 2-0 going into the second leg of their play-off with Switzerland in Istanbul.
The former Inter Milan midfielder has scored the winning goal in two of his club’s last three league games, and with the man who bought him insisting there is more to come, he will hope there are no further injury mishaps.
Meanwhile, Souness will assess Shearer and Carr over the next couple of days after admitting he hopes both could figure at Chelsea despite undergoing hernia operations less than a fortnight ago.
The 35-year-old striker had his surgery only last Monday, with Carr going under the knife four days earlier, and that makes his return the more likely.
