Steve Bruce insists the time must be exactly right to reintroduce Florian Lejeune back on to the big Premier League stage.
The Frenchman is back in the Newcastle squad after a successful comeback from a serious knee injury sustained last April.
Bruce was delighted with the former Eibar man's attitude after he played for the Under-23s recently to boost his fitness.
When asked whether the centre-back is close to a return, Bruce said: "I had a chat a week ago with him.
"The longer he trains, the better mentally and physically he becomes.
"To have the injury like he had then come back for six weeks & have it again – he’s had a tough time.
"When the time is right let’s hope we can introduce him."
Lejeune is likely to be on the bench at Sheffield United and he could be joined by Andy Carroll and DeAndre Yedlin who both trained this afternoon.
Bruce said: "They’re training today and they trained yesterday so if they don’t have any reaction they could be involved tomorrow."
