Six injury doubts for Blues clash

RAFA Benitez will be keen to have as strong a squad as possible to choose from this weekend.

The Magpies, who are just two points above the drop zone, travel to west London in order to take on fourth-placed Chelsea in Saturday’s teatime kick-off.

While Benitez decided to rest a large proportion of his first-team squad for last weekend’s 1-1 FA Cup third-round draw with Blackburn Rovers at St James’ Park, six first-team players remain potential injury doubts for this Stamford Bridge clash.

Federico Fernandez has not featured since he was forced off with a hip injury at half-time during the 1-1 draw against Watford on December 29.

However, he has been back in training for more than a week now and should be available to play at Stamford Bridge.

Ciaran Clark has been struggling with an ankle problem over the past month and has not featured since the 1-0 victory at Huddersfield Town.

He has been back in training for the past 10 days or so, though, and is in contention for a starting place this weekend.

It is believed Paul Dummett sought advice from a soft-tissue specialist in Barcelona this week in order to aid a long-standing hamstring problem.

While Dummett was not pictured in Newcastle training this week, he has not yet been ruled out of the trip to Chelsea and could be considered as either a left-back or as a centre-half.

Mo Diame was forced off after 53 minutes in the defeat to Manchester United earlier this month.

The initial prognosis was Diame would be fine after being rested for the draw with Blackburn but there have been suggestions behind the scenes the midfielder faces a race against time to be fit for the Chelsea game.

Jonjo Shelvey also travelled to Barcelona to see a soft-tissue specialist about a thigh problem which has restricted him to just 99 minutes of action over the past two months.

The England international is expected to face a late fitness test ahead of this weekend’s game.

Karl Darlow has been missing for six weeks with an elbow injury and is not expected to return this weekend

It appears likely young Freddie Woodman will again be among the substitutes at Stamford Bridge, with first-choice back-up goalkeeper Darlow yet to fully recover.