As stated in the Mirror, Jonas Gutierrez wants sympathy to play no part in his attempts to reclaim a place back in Newcastle United’s starting XI.

Instead, the former Real Mallorca man believes his reemergence in John Carver’s first team is based on merit and as a result of nothing but hard work in returning to full fitness.

His cameo appearance in Wednesday’s defeat to Manchester United was the first time Jonas Gutierrez has stepped back out on the pitch at St. James Park for over a year – and as the player has had to endure a publicly testing battle with testicular cancer throughout this recent time – his emotional come-back was rightly received with a standing ovation from all sections of the crowd.

After his much awaited comeback, the Argentinean international revealed;

“I’ll continue to do my best in the training and work hard to get the minutes on the pitch I want. I’m going to fight for my place. You get opportunities in football, and you have to be ready to take them.”

Gutierrez’ return is about the only bit of good news Newcastle United fans have had of late however – as with Papiss Cisse now suspended for a suspected seven matches after his spitting incident with Manchester United’s Jonny Evans, as well as the newly acquired Siem De Jong being ruled out of the rest of the season through injury – John Carver has had to deal with several of his most influential stars being missing from his day to day squad.

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