By Matthew Jones
June 24 2005

Newcastle United striker Shola Ameobi will miss the start of the season, giving boss Graeme Souness even more problems upfront. Shola will miss the whole of next month's InterToto Cup, and will be out of action until the end of August. Abeobi, aged 23, has had an operation on his hip operation, and said:

"It takes a minimum of three months to recover so I won't be available until late August.

"It's a bummer."

Striker Patrick Kluivert left St James' Park for Valencia, although Alan Shearer will be available this season having postponed his retirement. Craig Bellamy has also declared himself available for selection having failed to secure a permanant deal at Celtic.

Middlesbrough striker Mark Viduka is continued to be linked with the Magpies. Graeme Souness has been a long-time admirer of the 29-year-old Melburnian, and Boro boss Steve McClaren would be willing to offload the Aussie - as they now have eight strikers, having recently signed Yakubu.

Boro chairman Steve Gibson said: "You can have too big a squad.

"Footballers want to play football. It is obvious that we can only pick two, at best three, of the forwards that we have, so it is going to be difficult to keep them all happy."

The only problem Newcastle could face, would be Viduka's commitment to the Socceroos: "I won't let anything stand in my way of playing for Australia," he said.