Pardew had originally pencilled in a return for the French star, who broke his leg in October's 2-1 defeat by Manchester City, against Wolves at the beginning of April. But the Newcastle boss subsequently put that date back and concedes the 24-year-old is still some way off a return. Pardew said: "He's still some way off, the most important thing is Hatem is 100% when he plays. "I think that's going to be late April, early May, if then." Meanwhile, the Newcastle boss admits he is suffering an injury headache as his side seek to bounce back from their home defeat to Everton at Stoke next Saturday. He added: "Stephen Ireland will definitely not figure in that game, we'll have to wait and see on Joey Barton. "It's not ideal, we already have a problem with Jonas (Gutierrez), who carried a knock during the Everton game, so we'll have to wait on those. "As a football manager it's not ideal to lose a home game, and then have a run of injuries as well, so as I sit here it's not the most comfortable of positions I've been in since I came here. "But we still have enough senior players, and some good players to take to Stoke and get a result."
