Steve Bruce reveals his Allan Saint-Maximin 'dilemma' at Newcastle United

Bruce claimed last week that the Newcastle United winger might not be ready to return from his latest hamstring problem until the end of the month.

Saint-Maximin, signed from Nice last summer, pulled up in the December 8 win over Southampton at St James’s Park. The 23-year-old has been added to the squad for this evening’s televised Premier League home game against fourth-placed Chelsea.

“We’ve a few coming back, which is good, particularly Allan,” said Bruce. “He’s trained the last two weeks, and we hope he’s going to OK.”

Newcastle have only won one league game since Saint-Maximin limped off against Southampton, and Bruce is desperate to have him back available.

However, Bruce, United’s head coach, insists that he won’t take any risks with Saint-Maximin, whose campaign has been punctuated by a series of hamstring problems.

“We're always careful with him,” said Bruce. “The medical staff, they monitor him and measure him and see how far he's done. But he's done far more work this time around than he had done, for example, when we introduced him against Manchester United weeks ago, so we hope that he's OK.

“We've certainly done everything we can possibly do, or the medical people can do, to get him back fit.”

Asked if Saint-Maximin was fit enough to start, Bruce said: “That's my dilemma.”