Newcastle manager Alan Pardew may be without skipper Fabricio Coloccini who is a doubt for Saturday evening's FA Cup fourth round clash at Brighton.
The Argentinian defender suffered a slight groin injury in training on Thursday and will be assessed again before kick-off.
Newcastle go into the match without the services of strikers Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse who away on African Nations Cup duty with Senegal but both are expected to return early next week. Also missing are defender Steven Taylor (Achilles) and midfielders Sylvain Marveaux (groin) and Sammy Ameobi (knee) who, although all making good progress, remain on the long-term injury list.
Striker Kazenga LuaLua could return from injury for Gus Poyet's men to face his former club. Having joined the Seagulls permanently in November following three successful loan spells, LuaLua is back in training after being out for three weeks with a hamstring problem.
Fellow winger Craig Noone is also close to making a return from his hamstring strain, while Spanish midfielder Vicente Rodriguez could be in line to make his first appearance since mid-October following a thigh problem.
However, definitely out for the Seagulls are full-back Marcos Painter who suffered a suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury just six minutes into his comeback at Peterborough last Saturday and long term absentees Tommy Elphick (Achilles) and midfielder Gary Dicker (broken leg).
Teams:
Newcastle (from): Krul, Elliot, Harper, Simpson, R. Taylor, Santon, Ferguson, Perch, Coloccini, Williamson, Kadar, Cabaye, Obertan, Ben Arfa, Gutierrez, Gosling, Abeid, Vuckic, Best, Shola Ameobi, Lovenkrands.