Duff luck for Magpies
Damien Duff has suffered from the St James' Park injury curse in his first season
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Wednesday, 23, May 2007 08:41
Newcastle United winger Damien Duff has been ruled out for up to six months after undergoing foot surgery.
The Republic of Ireland star is also highly likely to miss all of his country's remaining European Championship qualifying matches against Slovakia, Czech Republic, Cyprus and Germany.
The final game of the Irish fixture list in group D of the Euro 2008 qualifiers is against the Germans in Dublin in November but manager Steve Staunton has already begun preparations for life without the 28-year-old.
"I think we'll be planning [without him] for the campaign because he'll only be regaining his fitness [in November]," Staunton said.
"If he comes back before that, it'll be brilliant for us. But if he doesn't I will have planned without him."
And although Staunton and Duff's new club manager Sam Allardyce remain in the dark over the exact period the winger faces on the sidelines, it appears that six months is a conservative estimate.
"It depends on when he gets the cast off," Staunton added.
"Who knows what we're looking at but it's at least five to six months."
The absence of Duff, who signed for the Magpies from Chelsea last summer for a fee of £5 million, will be a blow to the pre-season plans of new Newcastle manager Allardyce.
He also faces the prospect of crisis talks to persuade star striker Michael Owen to remain at the club, according to reports.