Football story by Brian Watters, Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:04:00 GMT


LONDON - England and Newcastle midfielder Kieron Dyer's tryst with injury continued with a hamstring strain, which sees him miss the action for three weeks. Dyer was injured in the FA Cup win over Southampton on Saturday which incidentally was his first match in six months.

The Newcastle United squad has been ravaged by injuries this season and the situation worsened when Titus Bramble walked off the field against Charlton in the lone premiership match played yesterday. With the Magpies' first choice strikers all being injured, the responsibility was on Shola Ameobi to provide the strike power at the front.

This was not to be as he missed a string of chances in front of goal ensuring that Glenn Roeder's side drew their match against Charlton. This was Roeder's fourth match in charge of the Magpies after Graeme Souness was dismissed earlier this month. Despite the latest injury fiasco, Roeder put on a brave face, "We are positive that in no longer than three weeks Kieron will be training again,” he said.

"Seventy-odd minutes might have just tested Kieron a little bit too much and tiredness has caught him out. Because it's Kieron, you can never put an absolute definite date on it, but we the important thing is we are keeping Kieron positive and he is keeping himself positive." He added that an initial scan had showed a mild strain.

On Bramble's injury, Roeder said that the physio was not able to assess it accurately, "He's having it iced and it needs to cool down overnight and we will have a look at it on Thursday, and he will probably end up having a scan in about two days' time," he said. "He hasn't got a history of hamstring problems so there's every chance he could be out there again playing within three weeks."

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