The midfielder had an exploratory operation this week after his knee swelled up following his sub appearance at Sunderland.
You have to feel for the kid - we were beating the Mackems when he was thrown on for his debut with five minutes to go to give him a taste of derby day action - but we won't go into what happened next.
His operation has confirmed there was floating cartilage in the knee and, following a small procedure, he is now facing a six-week absence.
Alan Pardew: “Dan has had his op. Basically when he came back there was fluid on the knee that we were concerned about.
“The surgeon was suggesting that would subside when he had played some Premier League games. But it got a little bit worse and we thought there must be a problem.
“It was the cartilage – they went in and trimmed it. but fortunately the cruciate ligament is not a problem.”