Newcastle winger Hatem Ben Arfa could miss the rest of the season as he looks set for surgery on a hamstring injury. "I think he's going to need an operation on his hamstring, and it will probably leave him missing for the rest of the year," said Toon boss Alan Pardew.

"[Next season is] the priority for him now because he's been a huge miss for us.

"He gives us that X-factor. Unfortunately for Hatem, that's the news that he didn't want to hear but as far as we are concerned, the team has responded well in his absence and hopefully, we do that until the end of the year."