RAFAEL BENITEZ is hoping Vurnon Anita’s return from injury will lessen the impact of Isaac Hayden being sidelined for up to a month.

Hayden has been carrying an ankle injury for a number of weeks, and with the problem having worsened since last weekend, Newcastle’s medical staff sent the midfielder for surgery on Thursday.

He will be sidelined for around four weeks, ruling him out of home games against Aston Villa, Bristol City and Fulham, as well as the potentially-crucial away matches at Brighton, Huddersfield and Reading, which all come within the space of a week.

Hayden’s absence is a particularly significant blow, as Benitez had identified a lack of central-midfield cover as a key weakness prior to the start of last month’s transfer window. He pursued a number of central midfielders in January, but was unable to persuade managing director Lee Charnley to complete a deal.

With Cheick Tiote having moved to China earlier this month, Jonjo Shelvey and Jack Colback are currently the only defensive-midfield options available to Benitez, although that could change by the time Aston Villa travel to St James’ Park on Monday with Anita nearing full fitness after recovering from an ankle problem of his own.

Anita has spent almost all of this season playing at right-back, but boasts extensive experience in a central-midfield position and should be capable of providing cover in that area if required.

“He (Hayden) had a little problem with his ankle that we were trying to manage, but in the end he was not comfortable with it and we had to do the operation,” said Benitez. “He was doing well, and was a key player for us. Now, we have to cope with the others.

“Hopefully, Anita will be fine. He trained (yesterday), not a full training session, but he has been working with us. He will give us different options. He was doing part of the training session, and he could maybe be ready for Monday. If not, he could maybe be ready for being on the bench, we will have to decide.

“We are losing one player that was playing, but we are gaining one that was doing well when he left. He was playing as a right full-back, but he is also a player who can play in three positions and understand the game.”

Anita will be joined in the squad to face Villa by Dwight Gayle, and having come off the substitutes’ bench during Tuesday’s 2-2 draw at Norwich, Newcastle’s leading goalscorer will find himself back in the starting line-up on Monday.

The Magpies will drop to second position if Brighton win at Barnsley this afternoon, but they remain much better placed than Villa, who are 16th, and Norwich, who are seventh, the two sides who were relegated with them last season.

Newly-relegated clubs tend to have a wretched record during their first season in the Championship, but as was the case with Chris Hughton’s Newcastle side seven seasons ago, Benitez’s squad appear to have taken life in the second tier in their stride.

Villa are a perfect example of what can go wrong following relegation, with millions of pounds of parachute payments having been squandered on unsuccessful signings, tensions apparently existing between the new players and some of those who were involved in last season’s demotion, and a new manager, Steve Bruce, struggling to create any cohesion within his squad.

Newcastle have avoided such a meltdown, with Benitez crediting some astute summer transfer research, particularly when it came to a player’s character, as a key part of the Magpies’ success.

“We tried to sign players that we thought could be good for the Championship, and then afterwards in the Premier League,” he said. “But we made sure that we were bringing in players with the right character.

“It is not just about quality sometimes, you also have to have the right characters. Sometimes, you might sign a player and they are not amazing, but they can create the right atmosphere in the dressing room. We have good players, and good professionals. We have a very good group.

“There are examples of good players who have not been right for the Championship. When we were talking about which players we had to keep and which players we had to sell, we talked a lot about mentality.

“We knew the players where the mentality was right for them to stay and keep pushing, and try to go up from the Championship. I think we were right with the majority of them. Obviously, we have made mistakes like everyone, but the key is that you make less mistakes than the others.”

Whereas Villa spent £12m on Ross McCormack, only to have to send the striker to Nottingham Forest on loan after he refused to attend training, Newcastle invested £10m in Gayle safe in the knowledge they were signing someone desperate to buy in to their promotion push.

“You can work and talk with players, but before you do that, you have to make sure the mentality is right,” said Benitez. “You can talk and talk, but if they do not have the right mentality, it is very difficult.

“I think we have assembled a good group of players, and the players that were already here are fine. They are pushing hard, and the understanding between the new players and the rest has been really good.”