HAVING returned from a seven-match exile with a 22-minute substitute appearance at the weekend, Papiss Cisse is hoping to play a much more prominent role in Newcastle’s final two games of the season.

Cisse was banned for seven matches after he spat at Manchester United defender Jonny Evans in March, and during that time, the striker also underwent minor surgery to address a long-standing knee problem.

He only returned to training on Thursday, but was deemed fit enough to replace an ineffective Emmanuel Riviere in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at West Brom, and almost set up a winner when he back-heeled the ball into Moussa Sissoko’s path for a last-minute shot that was well saved by Ben Foster.

With the Magpies two points clear of the relegation zone, their remaining matches against QPR and West Ham are going to be absolutely crucial, and as he prepares to embark on a full week of training, Cisse is hoping to be much more heavily involved in both games.

“It’s good to be back, a very good feeling,” said the Senegal international. “I’m happy to be back because it’s been a while since I was able to play. After my ban, I had my injury and had to have an operation, but now I feel okay. I’m just happy to be back playing.

“I’m feeling pretty good and I’m just happy to be back because I need to play. It is not just my job to keep us safe, but I know that my team needs me and now I am here, hopefully I can play in the next two games.”

Cisse’s final appearance before Saturday came in the 1-0 loss to Manchester United that started the club-record run of eight successive defeats that was finally halted against West Brom.

His spell on the sidelines coincided with Newcastle’s alarming slide towards the relegation zone, and he admits it was hugely frustrating to have to watch the club’s problems mount without being able to do anything about it.

“It has been really hard having to watch what has been going on,” he said. “For half of the time, I have been in Paris because I stayed there to recover from my injury. It has been very hard for me because it is not easy to see your team losing every week.

“You know the people well, and you know how hard it must be for them. But they have good, strong heads. I know some people where, if they had lost all these games, they would be struggling to cope. But this team keeps going, and keeps working very hard on the training ground. Now they have stopped the losing run, the next thing is to win.”

Newcastle had chances to claim all three points against the Baggies, with Sissoko having a first-half shot cleared off the line, but by the same token, they could well have been reflecting on another defeat had one of the two West Brom efforts that struck the woodwork crept into the net.

With Hull losing at home to Burnley, a draw turned out to be a reasonably useful result, and Cisse agrees that was important to stop the rot after such a lengthy run of defeats.

“It is only one point for the draw, but it was important that we got something from the game,” he said. “It was not an easy game to play because West Brom stayed back a lot and weren’t really trying to play.

“That didn’t make it easy for us, but to get one point is positive because when you have lost eight games in a row, you cannot go on like that. There was a lot of desire in the team, and now we need to keep on going. Maybe next week, if we do that, we will win the game.”