“As everybody knew, he didn’t have any team training at Newcastle, then went to the national team \[and\] only played there for 15 to 20 minutes,” the head coach told Sky Sports.
“We think, with a week where we play three games in seven days, this is the best lead-up for him to be available against Atletico Madrid.
“That’s always difficult to say \[how quickly he will be\] up to full speed. What I can say is that normally in a pre-season, after one or two weeks you play your first 45 to 60 minutes, you build that up gradually.
“But that you do with proper training sessions during the week, and now we hardly have any proper training sessions with the team because we play, like I just said, three games in seven days.
“So, where would he be? Second or third week of pre-season, I would say, so able to hopefully play during the week 45 minutes or more, but then two days later, as you know, we play Everton again.
“It’s going to be interesting for the performance staff, for us, to get the best out of him at the start but also to keep him available for the end.”