Miguel Almiron will have to wait to make his Newcastle debut as Rafa Benitez grapples with the rare and unexpected luxury of a selection dilemma.
The shrewd Spaniard is far too experienced to ever go as far as to claim he has an embarrassment of riches at St James' Park, but even the notoriously cautious Toon boss concedes to being almost spoilt for choice ahead of Monday's trip to Wolves.
Despite splashing a club record £21m on Almiron, the Paraguay international is set for a place on the bench at best as the 25-year-old builds up his match fitness following a two-month hiatus since his last game.
Almiron's fellow January arrival Antonio Barreca has added to the manager's options, and with midfield duo Mo Diame and Ki Sung Yueng available following injury along with Jonjo Shelvey being on the verge of a comeback, Benitez admitted: 'We have so many options now for this game, it will be really difficult for me to decide who will be on the bench, let alone who will start.
'We've been boosted by two players coming in with characteristics we didn't have, so we're better equipped to manage for the rest of the season. The competition for places has to be good for us.'
One selection issue Benitez doesn't have is at goalkeeper, where he has no qualms in sticking with Martin Dubravka, despite two recent high-profile mistakes from the first-choice keeper denting Newcastle's top flight survival hopes.
An error from the Slovakia international cost the Geordies a point against Tottenham at Wembley last week, which came on the back of an the 30-year-old issuing an apology for a costly fumble which led to Manchester United's first goal in a 2-0 set-back to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side last month.
Benitez backed Dubravka to rediscover the kind of impressive form that has largely underpinned his displays since arriving from Sparta Prague 13 months ago, and he added: 'I've been talking to Martin, but I don't need to sit down with him and talk too much about that aspect of his game.
'Like a defender, a keeper knows if they make a mistake then everybody will talk about it. He's okay, he's a good resilient professional, he's focused and is training really well so I trust him 100 per cent and his place is not under threat at all.'