Anxious Robson waits on late Bellamy fitness test

NEWCASTLE boss Bobby Robson will give striker Craig Bellamy until the last minute to prove his fitness ahead of tonight’s Champions League showdown with Feyenoord.

The 23-year-old was in the Newcastle party which flew out to Rotterdam for the crunch clash at the De Kuip stadium after making rapid progress in his recovery from a recurrence of the knee problem which caused the club such anxiety a few week’s ago.

He was included after returning to full training yesterday morning a matter of hours before Robson and his squad left Newcastle International Airport.

But he will have to persuade his manager he is ready to play some part in a game on which the future of the Magpies’ European adventure rests.

Bellamy is once again champing at the bit to be given his chance after missing the last three games in the competition - including the wins over Juventus and Dynamo Kiev which have kept Newcastle’s hopes alive.

And Robson hinted he could play a significant role as his side attempts to complete an unlikely fightback.

‘‘We know it’s the last match of our six-game period in the Champions League and it’s our last chance of staying in it,’’ he said. ‘‘And therefore, because it’s the last chance, it could well be that the risk is worth justifying.’’

‘‘He was very good and sharp this morning. We’ve looked after him and rehabilitated him properly and professionally. We haven’t asked him to play a game in advance of his condition. That would be stupid.

‘‘But it looks as though he’s ready for it. I have to decide tomorrow whether we play with him from the beginning or is it something that we have to hold back, and if we need him, does he come on?

‘‘I’ve just got to get my own head right about his condition and see him again tomorrow.

‘‘Today was the first day he’s actually trained with the first-team squad and people have to understand that.

‘‘Since he dropped out of that match with Blackburn three week’s ago, this is the first time that he’s actually been amongst us.

But Robson revealed that, if it has anything to do with the Welshman himself, he will play at some point in the match.

‘‘He looked sharp and he looked busy this morning and he looked free of any knee problem,’’ he said.

‘‘He was brisk, he had a competitive element in his training.

He was noisy and once he’s noisy, you know that he’s almost back to his best.’’

Newcastle need to win in Rotterdam to stand any chance of making the last 16, although even then they would need Juventus, who are expected to field a weakened team, to take something from Dynamo Kiev in the Ukraine.

However, the consolation is that a draw against Feyenoord, who won 1-0 at St James’ Park in September, would clinch third place in Group E and a place in the latter stages of the UEFA Cup.