Newcastle United captain Fabricio Coloccini has
recovered from injury and could be key to ensuring
the club's Premier League survival, manager Alan
Pardew said on Thursday as he also dismissed
reports of disharmony among his players.
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Argentine Coloccini has not played since suffering a
back injury at the end of February but is available for
Saturday's trip to West Ham United which comes a
week after a 6-0 thumping by Liverpool that left
them one place above the drop zone.
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"He's the captain of this club and sadly we've missed
him for a lot of the season in terms of injury and one
thing or another. But he's fit and well," Pardew said
on the club website (www.nufc.co.uk).
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"You need your leaders and you need people who are
experienced.
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"You can't get carried away and think that this is a
fight. This isn't a fight. It's not a boxing match - it's a
game of football so you need to have a calm head
and you need to play," he added.
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"And one thing that Colo obviously brings is that
calmness to the team and I think that is very
important where we are right now."
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Newcastle have 37 points from 35 games and are in
17th place, five points clear of Wigan Athletic who
occupy the remaining relegation spot after Queens
Park Rangers and Reading went down last weekend.
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They are one of three teams on the same points,
along with Aston Villa and Sunderland.
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After the humiliation at the hands of Liverpool last
Saturday there were media reports of unrest at the
club with one reporter from The Telegraph then being
banned from attending matches and news
conferences after his article on the situation.
Pardew was keen to stress there was no problem
among his players.
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"As far as I'm concerned, the group is very much
together," he said.
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"We're pulling together, trying to get a result, and
the fact that we have a lot of French players and
some language difficulty has been kind of torn up
and made to be something else.
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"There's no problem and we go to the next game."
Mathieu Debuchy is suspended after his red card
against Liverpool while fellow defender Massadio
Haidara is an injury doubt.
Newcastle FC has done great for the captain so far. He has done very well for the team.
Let's see what will happen next season.