RAFAEL BENITEZ has confirmed that Islam Slimani will not make his first appearance for Newcastle United until next month after a further injury-set-back.

The 29-year-old striker is yet to pull on the Magpies shirt since arriving from Leicester on loan form a fee believed to be around the £1.5m mark.

A thigh problem, which he arrived with, has prevented him from playing and he has spent some time working on his first in Algeria.

Now Benitez has admitted that Newcastle will return to action at Bournemouth tomorrow without Slimani – and he is also unlikely to play at Liverpool a week later.

“Almost everybody is available apart from Jesus Gamez, and Slimani had a set-back the other day, so he will not be available,” said Benitez.

“It will at least be a couple of weeks, we have to be careful with him because he had a problem when he arrived.

“We worked really hard to try to bring players in to give us something different in the Premier League.

"We knew he was carrying a small injury, he’d had little problems but in the last day he had to stop and check again.

“Everyone was expecting him to make the difference, but after the game against Manchester United we at least feel we have enough quality in the squad. Hopefully he will still help us in the games.

“When you go to the last day (of the window) it is always a risk. We did it and now we have to manage in the best way possible.

"He trained really hard, I was talking with him and he was positive, when he was feeling well he was training really well, but then he felt this little problem.”

Newcastle have had two weeks between matches so Benitez is banking on the standards set against Manchester United being maintained at the Vitality Stadium.

The Newcastle boss said: “You try to enjoy a break, but when you are doing well, you want to play the next game quickly.

"You cannot manage the fixtures, so pleased to be here and ready to play again. Hopefully after the game with Man U we can do well again.

“For us every game is like a final at the bottom. When you have played so well against one of the top sides you are expected to do well against, so we have to make sure we perform this is an opportunity to get three points.”