No Cheick Tiote but Senegal name Mohamed Diame and Henri Saivet in African Cup of Nations squad.

Newcastle United make request to Ghana FA to have Christian Atsu available on Monday – decision awaited.

No news yet on whether the Magpies have asked for special permission to allow Atsu, Diame & Mbemba to be available for Blackburn v Newcastle.

Ivory Coast progression to the semi-finals without Cheick Tiote on Sunday, led to increased transfer speculation that a deadline day transfer could happen.

John Carver has admitted that he hasn’t been able to reach Papiss Cisse by phone, rumours a pigeon has been dispatched to Equatorial Guinea are unconfirmed.

Newcastle potentially have most to gain if African Cup of Nations is cancelled, with up to four players possibly missing an important part of the season.

The hosting of the African Cup of Nations is decided at last tomorrow, with Mehdi Abeid, Papiss Cisse, Cheick Tiote and Alan Pardew all interested parties.

Man of the moment Mehdi Abeid has crowned a world turned upside down week by getting his first full international call-up for Algeria.

Three Newcastle players are now awaiting with interest the African Cup of Nations ultimatum dealt out to planned hosts Morocco.

We have already seen a number of our established players bouncing back to form on the back of the quality injection to our squad, nobody more so than Jonas Gutierrez on Saturday, it will be Cheick’s turn on Saturday.