Alan Pardew, the Newcastle United manager, is hoping the Senegalese FA will relent in their stance on stopping Papiss Cissé from playing in the club's Premier League fixture with Swansea City tomorrow.
Cissé missed his country's friendly with Niger on Wednesday, which has led to the Senegal FA threatening to invoke the five-day rule on the striker, which prevents players playing for their clubs five days after an international fixture – and would keep him out of Newcastle's next game.
The club insist they did send the correct papers through to inform Senegal that the forward had suffered a back injury during Sunday's defeat to West Ham United. Cissé was withdrawn at half-time in the game and Newcastle then made contact, via email, to say the player would not be travelling to face Niger.
"I don't want to fall out with Senegal," said Pardew. "Hopefully the communication, the lines will come together and we can put it right this evening. We feel we have covered all the bases to give them the information, but they seem not to have received it, so we are in discussions with Senegal and the FA about his availability for Saturday. Somewhere along the line, there has been something lost in translation here."
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