"David Connolly has been training and looking very sharp; obviously he is very important to us, bearing in mind the striker situation," says Alan Pardew.
"Neil Mellor is still struggling though Richard Garcia has trained this week, and he looks like he is available, which is good news.
"Kevin Horlock has trained this week as well, so we are starting to get two or three senior players back."
Alan is keen on reducing the injuries at the club and he adds:
"We put in place an injury prevention programme which I spoke about here before - it worked very well at my former club and I know it is going to work here.
"Our injury record isn't fantastic so some improvement is needed there and I think it will improve us and make the players stronger and fitter - which is all good news for us for the remainder of the season because there is still a long, long way to go."