Contrary to reports that he was coming back earlier this week, when in fact he was continuing intense rehabilitation in Bologna, Glenn Roeder reveals: "I have spoken to Paolo and he is flying back to England on Saturday, looking forward to training at Chadwell Heath on Sunday, and he will be fine.
"He will then train with everyone on Monday and Tuesday in the build up to the West Brom game.
"He has told doctor Ges Steinbergs that he is ready to go straight back in with the lads and we expect his physical condition to be in good order."
Paolo's return will give Glenn more options up front where he is most stretched. At Newcastle, in the absence of the Italian and Fredi Kanoute, Joe Cole played up front alongside Jermain Defoe, while Titi Camara has been the striker ready to come on from the bench.
Summer signing Youssef Sofiane, who missed some of pre-season with injury, is currently away with France under-21s in Russia, while youngster Billy Mehmet played up front for the reserves on Monday against Wimbledon.
Despite Paolo's recent injury problems, first with the knee and then with the foot injury that has restricted him to just 65 minutes of pre-season action, he said here some time ago that when he does return to action he would have the fitness levels he had when he was 27.
As well as being welcomed back by management and fans alike, someone else will be delighted to see him back on these shores - club photographer Steve Bacon, who will then be able to take the official squad photo for the 2002-03 season!
Another player recovering from injury, midfielder Don Hutchison, is on target with his rehabilitation programme as he steps up his training.
Club doctor Ges Steinbergs says: "His knee is looking stable and he did a little bit of work with Scotland last time they got together; they seemed impressed with him.
"He knows there is a lot of work ahead of him but at least he can see the light at the end of the tunnel as he looks to get back into first team contention.
"He has been doing some straight line running is building up gradually.
"I wouldn't like to put an exact time scale on his return but we thought seven to nine months when he originally did it and he is very much on target."
The likelihood is that Don will play a reserve game later in the month.
Meanwhile, Glenn Roeder says there is now such genuine competition in areas of the squad, that he will not be afraid to make changes when he feels they are necessary.
Although it has been well documented that he would have liked to have signed a striker before the transfer window closed, he feels that elsewhere he has got options which, after the defeats by Charlton and Newcastle, he is duty-bound to consider.
"If you look at our midfield players you can see the quality they can bring," he says.
"Trevor Sinclair, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Steve Lomas and Don Hutchison when he is fit - that is five excellent midfield players from whom we are going to be choosing four most times.
"If you throw in the experience of John Moncur, Edouard Cisse, and Brent Rahim, that is real competition for places, which is what it is all about.
"We now have that in the centre back role with Tomas Repka, Christian Dailly, Ian Pearce, and Gary Breen - who has not come here to sit on the bench.
"He wants to play in the team and he will be fighting hard to get his opportunity. When he does, I am sure he will be hard to shift.
"Christian and Tomas will be very motivated to keep their shirts, while Ian Pearce has been looking really sharp after his first pre-season for a long time. He is fighting really hard to be in the starting line up.
"We have got decent cover at right back now. Schemmel had a slow start to last season but he got progressively better throughout, ended up being Hammer of the year, and now knows he has got competition from Ian Pearce and Gary Breen.
"I have seen Gary play right back for Coventry and be their best player on the day from that position."
Glenn knows, though, that to sustain an acceptable level of competition within the squad there must be an element of fortune as well.
"Gradually we have moved out a couple of players and brought a few in that just, I think, makes us that little bit stronger as a squad," he says.
"But we still need to be ever so lucky with injuries, even though we have made progress in terms of strength in depth, and to this end we do take as much care of the players as we can."