PAUL DUMMETT remains a major injury doubt for Newcastle’s crucial relegation clash with West Brom – and Siem de Jong has already been ruled out of Saturday’s home game with the Baggies.

Dummett suffered a hamstring injury in the closing stages of last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at Leicester, and Newcastle officials are awaiting the results of a scan that was conducted yesterday.

If the defender fails to get the go-ahead for Saturday’s game, the Magpies will find themselves in the midst of a defensive crisis that could see them fielding either Lubomir Satka or Jamie Sterry at centre-half.

The alternative, with Mike Williamson and Daryl Janmaat suspended, would be to move Ryan Taylor to centre-half, with Vurnon Anita starting at right-back and Jack Colback or Jonas Gutierrez lining up on the opposite flank.

“Dummett is doing some work this afternoon,” said head coach John Carver at his pre-match press conference. “He’s not trained all week. He had a scan yesterday and we are waiting for the results on that. He will do some work this afternoon and we will see how he is tomorrow morning.”

De Jong was a second-half substitute in both the 3-0 defeat at Leicester and the previous game with Swansea, but the injury-plagued Dutchman has picked up a thigh problem that will rule him out of the weekend.

“Siem has unfortunately got an issue with his thigh and he has not done a great deal of training this week,” said Carver. “He is another one who has gone for a scan. He has got a problem there - he won’t be available this weekend.”

The news on both Papiss Cisse and Rolando Aarons is more positive, although both players could be restricted to a place on the substitutes’ bench on Saturday.

Cisse is available after completing a seven-match suspension, and has begun to step up his training schedule after receiving treatment for a knee injury.

Aarons played for 45 minutes of a development game this week, but having not played in the Premier League since the start of November, the winger is unlikely to be promoted straight into the starting XI on Saturday.

“It’s great to have him (Cisse) back on the training ground. He trained with us for the first time today. That big smile of his was great and his enthusiasm. He never shut up when I was trying to talk to players, he was rapping away all the time.

“You can see everyone else has gained this confidence and this lift, the fact that Papiss is on the pitch and scoring goals in training. But let’s not get carried away here, he has only trained once with us in seven weeks.

“He might be available for selection, I’ll need to see what he is like tomorrow. But it will be the bare minimum.

“Rolando Aarons got through 45 minutes the other night. The first 15-20 minutes he was fantastic, exciting, then he had a little dip and then came again.

“He is in a good position, but whether he will be involved this weekend, I’ll have to see again. Even Adam Armstrong has come in this morning with a tight calf so we have got one or two things where we will have to wait until the last minute.”