After ruled himself out of the running to replace sacked Steve McClaren as England manager, Sam Allardyce now concentarting on his football job for Newcastle United ahead of the upcoming first Big Match against Liverpool, a team so called one of the Big Four of the England Premier League.
“I’m contracted to Newcastle United and from my point of view that contract needs to be honoured,” he told Sky Sports News, “I’m not in a position like I was at my old club where the chairman openly extended the invitation for me to go for the position.”
For the Saturday after lunch fixture, history is on Newcastle’s side on Saturday. The Magpies beat the Liverpool 2-1 back in February when the teams last met, and have lost only once to them in their last five meetings at St James’ Park.
For Newcastle, the only thing that could labeled as the “disaster” from recent international break are Michael Owen and Steven Taylor injury hit. Michael Owen (thigh) will be missing for this weekend’s game with Liverpool while Steven Taylor (back) is a major doubt after both players picked up injuries representing their country.
The other player who return from their Internationl match, David Rozehnal reported back fully fit while Abdoulaye Faye is definitely missing and Claudio Cacapa is also doubtful for Liverpool.
Meanwhile, the latest injury report from the official site reporting that Damien Duff has returned to full training this week following nearly seven months on the sidelines with a career-threatening foot injury. The 28-year-old was last seen at Portsmouth back in April before limping from play with, what looked at the time, a fairly innocuous ankle knock.
“Hopefully we’ll have him back to the sort of level we know he can play at as quickly as possible.” Saild Allardyce.
“We’re looking forward to having him back in the first-team squad because Damien is a player of undoubted class who can play a big part for us this season.”