Krul OUT for season

Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul will miss the rest of the season after dislocating his shoulder during Sunday's 3-0 defeat to Sunderland.

The Dutch keeper was forced off an hour into the derby humbling after awkwardly punching away an Adam Johnson free-kick.

Krul, who was replaced by Rob Elliot, had only just returned to Alan Pardew's side after spending a month sidelined with an ankle injury.

And the Newcastle boss confirmed the 25-year-old, who suffered a similar injury when on loan at Falkirk in 2008, will miss the remainder of the season.



Pardew confirmed: "Tim has dislocated his shoulder and is definitely out for the season."

Ben Arfa set for return

Newcastle midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa could make a surprise comeback in the Tyne-Wear derby.

It was thought the 26-year-old would miss the remainder of the season in order to undergo an operation on a persistent hamstring problem.

But specialists have told the club that the Frenchman does not need surgery.

Ben Arfa was put through his paces on the pitch at St James' Park before Sunday's 1-0 win over Fulham and United manager Alan Pardew has revealed he has a chance of being involved in Sunday's match at St James' Park.

"What's happened with Hatem is that the scan has shown that we've got some scar tissue still in the hamstring," Pardew told the Hartlepool Mail. "He's showing no ill-effects.

"We've sent him to three experts, mainly a French expert, who's been looking after him. He thinks that he's 100%.

"We're now treating him as that. He's running. There could be a cameo as soon as Sunderland. He's got a week's work. If he gets through that work, then he could be involved."

Ben Arfa was in superb form at the start of the season and Pardew is keen to have the player back.

However, having seen Ben Arfa make two abortive comebacks from the injury, suffered in a Europa League group game against Maritimo, the manager is erring on the side of caution.



"It'd be a massive bonus for us, but it's still too early to call," added Pardew. "After the last time, we said he wouldn't play again this seaons. Half of me thought he might.

"I just wanted to clear his mind and see how he reacted. Hopefully, we'll get a nice bonus."

QPR are Premier League's oldest

QPR are the oldest and Liverpool are the youngest team in this season's Barclays Premier League, according to Opta stats.

The table below shows these three teams are significantly younger than the rest of the league.

Team Ranking — English Barclays Premier League

Pos.	Logo &Team	P	Average Age
1	Queens Park Rangers	31	28
2	Fulham	30	27.52
3	Stoke City	31	27.19
4	Norwich City	31	26.04
5	Chelsea	30	26.03
6	Wigan Athletic	30	25.81
7	Sunderland	31	25.77
8	West Bromwich Albion	31	25.73
9	Swansea City	31	25.57
10	Everton	30	25.41
11	Manchester United	30	25.34
12	Reading	31	25.29
13	Manchester City	30	25.17
14	Tottenham Hotspur	31	25.17
15	West Ham United	30	25.12
16	Aston Villa	31	24.79
17	Newcastle United	31	24.51
18	Southampton	31	23.71
19	Arsenal	30	23.24
20	Liverpool	31	23.22

Ben Arfa boost for Newcastle

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has revealed Hatem Ben Arfa could return from injury before the end of the season.

After 12 weeks out, the Frenchman returned to action earlier this month in the first leg of United's Europa League last-16 tie with Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala, but lasted only 64 minutes after being forced off with a hamstring injury.

The former Marseille winger was then ruled out for the rest of the season, but having returned to France to work on his fitness, Pardew has revealed he may be back to action sooner than planned.

Speaking to the Newcastle Chronicle, Pardew said: "We're getting more optimistic he could be involved again before the end of the season."

Pardew has previously insisted he will not take any risks with Ben Arfa but it would be a major boost for Newcastle if he can return for the run-in as he is a player who the manager feels brings a different dimension to the team.

"He's a massive player at this level. He's our Suarez - he's that different player, someone who in a tight game can create something out of nothing," Pardew said last month.

"He's a fantastic player, tremendous technique and a great mentality to be one of the best players in the world.



"That's what he wants to be. That's his target and all I am trying to do is drive him towards that goal."

Cabaye reveals he battled depression

Newcastle United star Yohan Cabaye has revealed that he battled depression earlier this season after a gruelling debut campaign in English football.



The former Lille star joined Newcastle in the summer of 2011, and he had a sparkling year which ended with his appearance for France at Euro 2012.



But he admits that not having a winter break for the first time in his career took its toll on his body, which led to a bout of depression.



Cabaye, though, feels that the groin injury he suffered midway through this season in many ways helped him and he now feels he is getting back to his best.



"Depression? I am not afraid to say that. It was that," he explained to L'Equipe.

"I was reassured reading the books of Jonny Wilkinson and Rafael Nadal, who both talked about the same thing. They talked about post competition depression and the need to have a break."

Yohan Cabaye

"But I was reassured reading the books of Jonny Wilkinson and Rafael Nadal, who both talked about the same thing. They talked about post competition depression and the need to have a break.



"Euro 2012 was the first big international competition I had played. It is completely different than what you could experience in daily life with your club.



"My season was long in a league where the pace is higher than in Le Championnat. I started with Newcastle early in July 2011 and finished late in June 2012 and, for the very first time, I didn't have any winter break so then to resume in July 2012, it was very difficult. Maybe it is difficult to start again after a big competition such as the Euros, but my body didn't allow me to do what I wanted to do.



"On a morning when I woke up, I could still feel tiredness. I wanted to think about something else rather than football.



"I am lucky to earn a living with my passion, but it was the right moment for a break. So my groin injury at the end of the year was finally not such a bad thing. Maybe that is why I was back earlier than expected.



"I asked myself a lot of questions. As long as you didn't experience it [depression] you cannot understand. But I was not worried.



"My injury allowed me to have some rest, meet my family and friends in Lille. When I was back in Newcastle in December I knew I felt better, but I never complained to anyone but my entourage."

Back to his best

Cabaye insists that he feels so much better following the surgery on his groin and he is now loving football again.



He added: "When I underwent surgery, I never asked myself if I would find my best level. My only desire was to cure my adductors, not feel any more pain and to be back perfectly fit in 2013.



"Physically I feel perfectly fine now and I am keen to fight for the club. I want to give twice as much to save the club from the drop. I want to prove to the fans that they can trust me and I can defend the Newcastle colours.



"Now that episode is over, I have much more fun going to daily training sessions. I realise how lucky I am. I felt that enthusiasm could leave and that is most dangerous."

Owen accuses Newcastle

Michael Owen has accused Newcastle of lying and insists he was never offered a new contract when his time at St James' Park came to an end in the summer of 2009.

The former England international, who announced on Monday he will hang up his boots at the end of the season, joined Newcastle in a £16million deal from Real Madrid in August 2005.

His four years in the north east were badly hampered by injury, but he still produced a healthy return of 26 Premier League goals from his 71 appearances.

The former Liverpool striker joined Manchester United as a free agent after his deal expired when the Magpies were relegated to the Championship, but many supporters still bear a grudge following his exit.

Owen, now with Stoke after three seasons at Old Trafford, has moved to set the record straight and took to Twitter to explain his version of events.

Owen wrote: "Newcastle fans, plenty of you tweeting me saying you don't blame me for getting injured but for leaving when we got relegated.

"Despite the club saying they did, they didn't ever offer me a new contract despite them putting it in the press that they did.

"How could they when they had just been relegated? It would have been financial suicide.

"I've seen it a million times, a club will blatantly lie to their fans to take the moral high ground leaving the player with no leg to stand on.



"I've taken the stick for years which is fine but you really don't know half of it. All will be revealed one day."

Pardew blasts horror tackle

Alan Pardew struggled to contain his anger at Callum McManaman's "awful" tackle on Massadio Haidara in Newcastle's 2-1 defeat at Wigan.

Latics forward McManaman, on his first Premier League start, caused outrage with a reckless knee-high challenge on Haidara, who was reported to be in too much pain to have the injury assessed after the game.

The Newcastle boss later revealed that referee Mark Halsey, who did not even book McManaman, had apologised at half-time for missing the challenge.

Pardew's annoyance was compounded in the final minute when Arouna Kone slotted in the winner after a goalmouth scramble, with the Newcastle players all appealing for handball on Maynor Figueroa.

"It is an awful challenge. The pictures speak for themselves," said Pardew. "I thought it was a bad challenge and I was 60 yards from the incident.

"The players knew because they were on top of it and there was a lot of bad feeling about that incident when it goes unpunished. He (Halsey) said 'If I've missed it I apologise' - that was at half-time.

"My job was to calm the players at half-time, not go looking for retribution, and try to win the second half - which to all intents and purposes we did.

"But again there's a decision at the end where we should have had a corner, it goes up the other end and there's a handball - that is tough to take."

When asked about the extent of Haidara's injury, Pardew added: "The doctor assessed him quickly before he was scuttled away to be assessed later.

"It looks like knee ligaments and bad bruising and that's the best we can hope for."

The Newcastle boss also has concerns over full-back Mathieu Debuchy who limped off with a hamstring injury and was replaced by Haidara.



"We will send him to France (for this week's international duty) for them to assess him but we think he will be on his way back," he said. "We don't think it is a particularly bad tear - a strain hopefully."