JONAS GUTIERREZ was back with his Newcastle United team-mates yesterday following his successful recovery from testicular cancer.

Gutierrez flew back into England earlier this week, having been given the all clear by his surgeon in Argentina last month.

He linked back up with the rest of the Newcastle squad at their Benton base yesterday, but is not yet being considered for a possible return to first-team action.

Gutierrez criticised Alan Pardew in a recent interview in his homeland, claiming the Newcastle United boss had instructed him to look for new employers shortly after his diagnosis was confirmed.

However, Pardew insists he harbours no grudges and is delighted to see the fans’ favourite back in the first-team fold.

“There is a nice group there with (Ayoze) Perez, Colo (Fabricio Coloccini) and Facundo (Ferreyra), and he’ll fit nicely into that – into our tapas section,” said the Newcastle boss.

“I can’t see a situation where he won’t be around here, and we’ll try to get him up to speed as quickly as we can.”

Gutierrez has been doing some fitness work in his homeland, but it remains to be seen whether he is capable of recovering the levels required for a return to action in the Premier League.

His last Newcastle appearance came against Cardiff City in October 2013, but even if he is unable to return to the first-team fold, his reappearance on the training ground should have given his team-mates a major lift.

Pardew is keen to reintegrate him into first-team affairs as smoothly as possible, but is yet to decide whether to offer Gutierrez the chance to address his team-mates in order to discuss his experiences in the last 12 months.

“We’ll have a conversation with him and see how he feels,” he said. “Sometimes, those illnesses can change your outlook. We’ve all known people go through that and come out the other side with a different aspect on life.”