Newcastle captain Fabricio Coloccini sidelined for up to seven weeks

Fabricio Coloccini is expected to be sidelined for between “three and seven weeks” as the Newcastle defender recovers from two broken bones in his back, Alan Pardew has confirmed.

The South American landed awkwardly during the Magpies’s 4-2 victory over Southampton last month and returned to his native Argentina to work with his national team’s medical team.

Pardew said: “Colo has gone back to Argentina. There’s no treatment he can have – he’s broken two of the bones in his back.

“We think it’s going to be anything between three and seven weeks. He’s gone back for a week.”

Pardew’s face Anzhi Mackhachkala in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday night, and the Magpies boss is proud to flying the English flag in Europe.

“When you get to next week there’ll only be us, Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal left in Europe,” Pardew added.

“So in some ways we’re carrying the flag for the country, and that’ll be something I’ll suggest to the players. I think that’ll be a nice feeling to have.”

Pre-match facts: Anzhi Makhachkala v Newcastle

• Newcastle have made it to the round of 16 despite scoring just eight goals from matchday one onwards – an average of just one a game, and the lowest tally of any of the group stage survivors to have made it this far.

• Samuel Eto’o is the only player to have featured in every minute of Anzhi’s eight games since the start of the group stage – 720 minutes in total.

• Newcastle’s 1-0 win at Metalist Kharkiv in their round of 32 second leg ended a run of five away games without a win in Europe (D3 L2).

• During his brief spell in charge in 2009, Guus Hiddink led Chelsea to a 2-0 Premier League win at Newcastle – the first game of Alan Shearer’s brief spell as manager of his old side.