It's better news with regard to injuries at Newcastle.

Once again it's been another year that has been dominated by injury at Newcastle. The yearly curse has arguably struck us harder this time around as, quite simply, our squad lacks strength in depth in certain areas.

Still, I have to credit those players who have come in and done a job and, to use a cliche, have 'taken their chance' when they have been called upon to fill in for more established Premier League players.

It's looks as though those injuries are starting to clear up now though and, fingers crossed, it could be that Newcastle have a nearly full squad to choose from when we reach the final few weeks of the season, so I thought that perhaps I would give a quick update on how things stand with regard to injury at the moment.

Dan Gosling is currently easing himself back into training after suffering a setback upon his return from a long-standing cruciate ligament injury. It will be another longer than expected lay-off for the lad as the club seem keen to handle his recovery using a softly-softly appraoch, which is understandable given the length of time he has been out for.

Ryan Taylor is another player who is back in training and is even closer to returning to first-team action. Taylor played in the reserves last night and had Pedro purring as he put in a strong performance in a 2-0 win against Bedlington Terriers. It's been three months since Sol Campbell clattered Taylor in training and mangled his ankle, so it's nice to see him return to action unscathed.

Moving on to another Taylor, Stephen will be back in training on Monday as he steps up his his return from a hamstring injury. It's been a torrid 13 or so months for the defender who has been hampered by knee and shoulder injuries which has restricted him to only a handful of appearances for the first team.

Shola Ameobi was going to be out for six weeks, and he could still be if he doesn't feel confident enough to play using his specially fitted face mask that he will be going to the USA to get fitted tomorrow. However, if Shola doesn't have any issues with said gimp mask then he could be back playing in time for the Bolton game, although a return against Everton in the game after would look to be more likely.

Stephen Ireland is pencilled in to return to training at the end of February having being signed from Aston Villa whilst already suffering a knee injury. The move was initially in doubt after Ireland failed his medical, but upon closer inspection the medical team decided that Ireland would make a suitable recovery. I would say that it's likely to be towards the end of March before we see the loanee anywhere near first-team action.

And finally, saving the best and most anticipated until last, Hatem Ben Arfa is also scheduled to return to training at the end of the month. A return to first team action will be a while yet as he builds his fitness up slowly and effectively puts himself through another pre-season.

Ben Arfa has been keeping himself in shape whilst he has been on the sidelines, but he will still need to rebuild the muscle in his leg slowly to reduce the likelihood of any form of setback. I would say it's unlikely that we'll see Ben Arfa back in the black and white again until the end of March at the earliest, maybe even the first week or two in April to be safe. Either way, I doubt that we will see the best of Benny boy this season and will have to wait until next season to see him back in full flight for us.

So that just about covers all of our injured players and their scheduled return dates. Obviously none of them are set in stone and there is a possibility that they could all suffer setbacks, which would be very Newcastle, but it does look like it will give us extra options as we head into the final few weeks of the season.

Fingers crossed!