Newcastle manager Bobby Robson has said that he and his Newcastle staff were worried that Kieron Dyer's recent injury might have been cancer. Fortunately this proved not to be the case as tests revealed the Ipswich-born player had a stress fracture of his shins.

Robson said: "He had a growth and we didn't know what it was. The medical people thought it was a tumour - benign or malignant. It was getting bigger and bigger, and a crack was developing in the shin. When they finally got it out they found it wasn't a tumour but a streess fracture."

Obviously all were relieved at the news, but this wasn't the end of their worries: "Once the stress fracture was diagnosed we still knew there was a chance it would not heal. Sometimes the specialist can tell someone not to play for a year but they can do this and still have the stress fracture 12 months later."

The decision was to replace a piece of his shin bone with some bone from his hip. A steel rod has also been put through his shin. This is unlikely ever to be removed.

The injury is not thought to be anything which will affect him adversely long-term. Recently there have been rumours suggesting a £20 million move to Manchester United. Blues fans are watching the situation closely as should Dyer leave Newcastle, Town would receive an undisclosed percentage of the profit. He joined Newcastle for £6 million (plus another £500,000 on appearances, England caps etc) in the summer of 1999.

Marcus Stewart has won the ITFC Supporters' Club Player of the Year. The striker received more than 50% of the votes with Hermann Hreidarsson second. He will receive the award before Monday's game with Manchester City.

All Town fans are nervously chewing nails as Town move into the last couple of games with a chance of Champions' League football. More nervous than most is North Stand fan Nick Gibbs who stands to win quite a bit of cash if we do make third. Click the link to read the full story: http://www.thesearethedays.co.uk/bet

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