Jamaal Lascelles has made good progress with his knee injury and has now stepped back on to a treadmill.
The Newcastle United club captain will now hope to be running on the grass again in the new year.
Lascelles left St James' Park on crutches after the win over AFC Bournemouth after a collision with his own goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.
Lascelles, speaking to the club programme, said: "It’s been a couple of weeks since I had a scan, which showed that the bone is healing.
"That’s exactly what you want, and I’d say my recovery is going well.
"I’ve been doing quite a lot in the gym without loading too much."
Lascelles will watch on from the stands against Crystal Palace but has confidence in his team-mates.
He said: "We’re heading into the busiest time of the season now but we’re in a positive frame of mind going into it - 100%.
"If you look at where we were this time last year and the year before, we’re in a much better position now we’ve already got a decent number of points on the board and we’ve got some games coming up in which we fancy ourselves.
"Christmas is always a hectic time for us but we normally do quite well."
