The Magpies were without the likes of Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Nicky Butt and Shay Given for Sunday's friendly match and Keegan is hopeful of having a few back for the pre-season matches against PSV Eindhoven and Valencia at St James' Park.

"We are down to one forward at the moment with Alan Smith - we have not risked anybody," Keegan told the club's official website.

their all

"But Michael will be back soon and will probably come on for the final half hour of the Valencia game.

"There's a lot of lads who have done a big shift in this pre-season. Geremi, Alan Smith, James Milner, Danny Guthrie, Steven Taylor and Claudio Cacapa have played a lot of football.

"They have done it without complaining and given it their all. Hopefully we'll have a few lads back for our games this week."

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