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Injured since his arrival on loan from Leicester City, Islam Slimani has yet to play a minute of football for Newcastle United.

Expected to be back against Manchester United, the Algeria international is still being left to one side by Rafa Benitez, who would rather not rush him back and have him fully fit for the rest of the season.

We’ll have to wait and see when the Spaniard decides to finally field the Newcastle striker, yet word out of his home country is that it’ll be sometime before the March 24th.

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According to Le Buteur, Slimani has ‘the full confidence’ of his national team manager, Rabah Madjer, and is, barring any last minute setback, expected to be a part of the next Algeria squad for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Gambia and the friendly against Iran.

The game before that, the one where he was most likely to make his debut for Newcastle, is Tottenham in the league on March 16th, but if (when?) Spurs qualify in the FA Cup, then he might not feature for the Magpies before March 31st against Huddersfield.

That means he could end up traveling with the Algeria team before even playing a minute under Rafa Benitez.

Will that go down well on Tyneside?

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