The midfielder was injured during the Alex's pre-season clash with Bolton Wanderers and has been back up in Newcastle receiving treatment from the Magpies' medical team.

Steve said: "He's just started to load that leg now. He's doing more stuff on it, so we believe he'll spend this week building that up and we're hoping next week he'll be back with us.

"It's taken longer than we anticipated, but he's got to be right and the Club aren't going to send him back to us until they definitely know he's ok.

"Then of course we've got to get him fit which will probably take three weeks to get him up to speed, so it's not been a great start for him.

"We would have obviously liked him available for the start of the season, but you can't really avoid some things that happen sometimes."