The bad news is that Jonathan Woodgate has suffered a relapse in his recovery from his stomach injury and misses the game, and the club has already withdrawn him from the England squad for next weekend’s internationals despite the squad not yet being selected.
Craig Bellamy is absent with a knee injury, but the extent of Nobby Solano’s groin injury appears to have been exaggerated as he is named in the squad and as a result there is no place for Darren Ambrose.
Lee Bowyer returns to the squad but there are no real clues about the starting line-up, although Gary Speed and Aaron Hughes both finished Wednesday night with minor injuries and may be left out of the starting 11.
Also Michael Chopra may be in line for his first start after scoring the winner for the reserves against Liverpool on Thursday, particularly in light of the fact the Alan Shearer - Shola Ameobi partnership looks unworkable.
Birmingham City will be without strikers Christophe Dugarry, Luciano Figueroa and new loan signing Mikael Forssell, while centre back Darren Purse is a doubt due to a bout of flu.
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Squads
Newcastle United: Given, Harper, Griffin, Bernard, Hughes, S.Caldwell, Bramble, O'Brien, Jenas, Speed, Dyer, Viana, Bowyer, Robert, Solano, Shearer, Chopra, Ameobi, LuaLua.
Birmingham City: Taylor, Bennett, Kenna, Clapham, Cunningham, Upson, Purse, Tebily, Devlin, Johnson, Savage, Dunn, Clemence, Cisse, Lazaridis, John, Horsfield, Morrison, Carter, Hughes, Kirovski.
Referee: Matt Messias