Matthew Etherington and Dean Ashton's chances of appearing in Saturday's FA Cup final have been given a boost.
Left-winger Etherington suffered a nasty ankle injury in training last week whilst recovering from a strain sustained in the warm up to the West Brom game a fortnight ago, and was initially considered extremely doubtful for the final.But Alan Pardew has revealed that the pacy wide-man's chances of making an appearance have improved slightly in the past 72 hours.
"The swelling has gone down from when he first did the damage," he said. "Matthew has given himself a bit more of a chance."
Meanwhile Ashton - out since pulling up at West Brom a fortnight ago - could be set to return to training as early as tomorrow, with the big striker's chances of playing now rated at '60/40' by Pardew, who added:
"I'm working on my Cup final team now and even if Deano and Matty can't train yet I have players of a similar ilk I can use to take their roles if I think they will be fit in time for the final.
"Apart from those two everybody is fit - and we still have a fair bit of time left before the game.
"When I was a player at Crystal Palace, Steve Coppell would ask about people's injuries and ask whether it was just pain. If it is just pain you can play in a match like this."
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