Pardew not blaming Trap for Best injury

NEWCASTLE UNITED manager Alan Pardew has absolved Giovanni Trapattoni and the FAI of any blame for the injury which will keep Leon Best out of tomorrow’s Premier League home tie against Wolves.

The striker missed the club’s last league game against Stoke City with an ankle injury but trained with the Republic of Ireland squad ahead of the Macedonia qualifier before being sent back to England with the same complaint.

“I’d suggest that Leon’s out for Saturday but that’s nothing to do with the Ireland training session in fairness to them,” said Pardew. “The injury is such we’re going to have to get him seen on Monday by a specialist to see what’s going on because it just isn’t right.”

Pardew replied ‘probably not’ when asked if Best should have trained with the national team before again rejecting the suggestion it had any impact on the complaint but he was unable to put a timeframe on how long the player will be unavailable.

“I’ve no idea. When he had the injury before he’s had an injection and it’s gone away. He’s had the injection this time and it hasn’t gone away. We might have a second injection and go down that line. We’ll have to wait and see.”

The Newcastle manager also drew a line under the controversy involving Best and Stephen Ireland who were photographed in a nightclub the night prior to the Stoke game which was in contravention to club rules despite the fact they were injured at the time.

“They’ve been disciplined and it’s done. That’s the end of it.”