With FA Cup fixtures taking place this weekend, the Magpies do not play again until the trip to Stoke on Saturday week. The United players finished training on Wednesday and will not now start preparing for Stoke until Monday and Pardew hopes the break will benefit his squad, with the likes of Joey Barton, Jose Enrique, Jonas Gutierrez, Stephen Ireland and Nile Ranger among those carrying knocks. He told the club's official website: "Life could be better because the injury front is not looking too good this week. "But we've got a chance of having a physical and mental rest, and then will start for Stoke on Monday, when I hope to have a couple more bodies around me." Pardew is going to pick the team for Stoke next Thursday, rather than trying to get players fit on the Friday, as has happened in recent weeks. He said: "We will just have to wait and see really (on the injured players). By Wednesday of next week I really need to know whether people are going to train on Thursday. "I am going to pick the team on Thursday. In recent weeks we have been trying to get players through Thursday and Friday to be able to play on Saturday, and it hasn't worked for us. "So we will now nail our team down on Thursday morning and go with it, whatever it is."
