[goldenHuddlestone]

SAM Allardyce last night confirmed that Newcastle had been forced to put Michael Owen's recovery programme back a couple of days, ruling the England international out of this weekend's home game with Derby.

And while Damien Duff stepped up his comeback with a goalscoring performance in yesterday's behind-closed-doors friendly with Middlesbrough, Allardyce also revealed that the Irishman was not in contention for Saturday's St James' Park showdown.

Owen has been sidelined since suffering a thigh strain in November's international friendly in Austria.

The problem ruled him out of England's subsequent European Championships qualifying defeat to Croatia, and also prevented him from appearing in Newcastle's last four league games.

He has received treatment in Germany from renowned specialist Hans Muller-Wohlfarth, and the Magpies' medical staff had pencilled in December 22 as a possible return date.

That has proved optimistic, however, and with limited training time available over the Christmas period, it now appears unlikely that Owen will make a first-team appearance before the end of the year.

Duff should be back in contention before then, but despite opening the scoring as Newcastle's reserves lost 4-1 yesterday, the former Blackburn and Chelsea winger is extremely unlikely to be involved against the Rams.

"Damien played another 90 minutes and is getting stronger, but I don't think he will be involved at all against Derby at the weekend," said Allardyce.

"A number of players featured in the (training) game, but Michael Owen was not one of them.

"The thigh strain has taken a little longer than we thought to heal and he won't be back in training until the end of the week.

"We'd hoped he would be able to play in the practice match and then against Derby, but we'll just have to be patient with him."

While Owen was not involved in yesterday's game against Middlesbrough, Steven Taylor, Abdoulaye Faye and Shola Ameobi were all able to build up their fitness levels ahead of a run of four first-team matches in the space of 11 days.

"Everyone who played has come through it fine," added Allardyce.

"Abdoulaye Faye and Shola Ameobi also played, but Steven Taylor is the only one who is likely to come back into the team for the Derby game.

"He looks fine after missing the Fulham match with a hamstring problem."