IF Ryan Taylor makes his long-awaited return to action in a Newcastle United shirt this weekend, his comeback story is one which Alan Pardew hopes will inspire the rest of his squad for the remainder of the season.

It was two years ago gone August when Taylor last played for the Magpies. That night, against Greek side Atromitos in the Europa League, he suffered cruciate ligament damage to his knee.

The hard luck story did not end there, though. After working his way back towards a long-awaited comeback, the 30-year-old suffered a repeat in April last year and that has prevented him from being in contention until now.

After coming through a few reserve team fixture matches in the last month or so, Taylor will travel to London with the rest of the Newcastle squad for tomorrow’s Premier League match at Tottenham.

The likelihood is that the former Wigan defender will be on the bench, but his mere presence in the dressing room should be enough to lift Newcastle’s other players given the personal nightmare he has had to endure over the last 26 months.

“That is THE story to come out of our training ground this week in my opinion,” said Pardew. “This is a guy who commands great respect here, not just with our fans, but within the training ground, his place of work.

“For our coaches and our players, he is really unfortunate to have the injuries that he has had in his career and yet he still comes in with a positive smile on his face, does his rehab - and can you imagine doing that three times? We are all so pleased he is in and around us again. He feels he is ready to play so we will see. He is in the squad.”

Taylor’s involvement has given Pardew an extra lift after being a relieved man when Newcastle’s wait for a first Premier League win of the season finally came to an end last week.

The frustration Pardew has encountered is that he looks set to have to change his team after that win, with a significant fitness doubt surrounding Senegal striker Papiss Cisse.

Cisse, who has scored four times since returning from a fractured patella, has not trained this week because of a different knee problem. Key midfielder Cheik Tiote has also been receiving treatment, along with Mike Williamson, Paul Dummett, Emmanuel Riviere and Sammy Ameobi.

Pardew, who expects winger Rolando Aarons to be available for the visit of Liverpool a week today, said: “We are sweating a little bit on a few of them. But I am not ruling anyone out or in at this stage. But the mood in training has been much stronger this week. Our resolve has grown and hopefully our confidence too as a team.

“Cisse has not trained since the last game. He has a slight problem with his knee. We do not think it is anything major and has nothing to do with his previous injury.”

He has no such concerns about the fitness of Dutch keeper Tim Krul. After shaking off an elbow problem sustained on international duty ahead of the Leicester win, he has not suffered any ill-effects from appearing last weekend.

Krul was at his stunning best 11 months ago in helping Newcastle to hold on to a slender 1-0 lead at White Hart Lane to return to Tyneside with three points. Pardew would love to see his No 1 repeat his heroics tomorrow.

“I do hope he has a quieter afternoon. He had to produce three really outstanding saves. It was his top performance of last year,” said Pardew. “Looking at Spurs this year, they have been hot and cold. When they are hot, they are really hot but they have had a couple of cold weeks and we hope we can cash in on one of those and exploit it.

“Tim is a player who is going to get even better. That is the beauty with him. He has great experience already but with age, keepers improve. They understand the angles and opposition players more as they grow older.

“As long as they do not lose that spring and alertness - and Tim is too young for that - they are going to improve and Tim goes back there an even better player.

“He is up there with the best goalies I have ever worked with and I have worked with one or two good ones and he is right at the top of that list at the moment.”