Siem de Jong is targeting Newcastle's home clash with Swansea later this month for a return to senior action after an eight-month injury nightmare.
The 26-year-old Netherlands international midfielder played 45 minutes for the club's Under-21s team on Wednesday evening after competing his recovery from surgery to repair a collapsed lung.
Head coach John Carver has hinted that De Jong could even make the 18 for Sunday's Premier League fixture against Tottenham at St James' Park, and while the Dutchman has not ruled that out, his sights are set the Swans' visit to Tyneside on the following weekend.
He told nufcTV: "I don't think I could play 90 minutes in the coming weeks, so it will be maybe as a substitute at the end of the game, but I don't know if I will be on the bench... We haven't discussed yet when I'll be back.
"But I hope Swansea -- I don't know yet if Tottenham would be a good time, but I hope to be back on the bench against Swansea, depending on how it goes in the coming days and depending on how I feel tomorrow after today.
"We'll see how it goes. I still have to get a little bit stronger, a little bit more explosive, a little faster, and hopefully I can work on that in the coming days."
De Jong, a £6 million summer signing from Ajax, has made just three senior appearances for the club, the last of them in a 3-3 home draw with Crystal Palace on Aug. 30 last year -- his only league start to date.
Injury hit when he badly tore a thigh muscle in training days later and was sidelined until February, when disaster struck once again as he suffered a collapsed lung for the second time in his career.
He took the first tentative steps towards a first-team return at St James' Park on Wednesday evening, and while he knows there is more hard work to be done, he is glad to be back and already looking towards the start of next season.
De Jong said: "I haven't repaid the fans a lot this season, so I hope to be playing a couple of games, maybe, at the end of the season.
"But I have to focus on next season and be really fit then and hopefully I can show the fans what I can do, and show myself and show my teammates what I can do."