NEWCASTLE UNITED will discover the extent of DeAndre Yedlin’s knee injury later today – with Rafael Benitez admitting he would struggle to cope with a glut of defensive problems.

Yedlin fell awkwardly on his knee in the closing stages of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Tottenham, and while he was eventually able to clamber to his feet, he was unable to continue as he hobbled down the touchline.

The extent of the injury should be clear once he has had a series of scans, with Benitez hoping the full-back has avoided a serious issue that would sideline him for weeks or even months.

Florian Lejeune has already been ruled out of the first half of the season after damaging his cruciate ligaments earlier this summer, and while Newcastle brought in Fabian Schar and Federico Fernandez during the transfer window, they are already looking short of defensive options, with Javier Manquillo the only real alternative to Yedlin at right-back.

“That (defensive cover) was one of the main worries, and it was why we knew we had to bring in Fernandez,” said Benitez. “He has given us the chance to have a centre-back because we couldn’t find the right left full-back that we were looking for.

“If you have him, maybe you can move (Ciaran) Clark and protect (Paul) Dummett, and of course Manquillo can play on either side. However, we know that Manquillo is a right footer so we wanted to sign someone with experience in the Premier League so we knew that if we had to move players to provide cover for some positions, we have another chance to do that. Is it ideal? No.

“The position we were looking at in defence was centre-back and left full-back. They are the two positions. Then the number ten was another position we were looking for. You cannot sign everything, so at least try to protect yourself and make sure you have enough options with experience, and with the right level to be able to compete in the Premier League.”

There is a greater degree of depth at the other end of the field, and having handed debuts to both Salomon Rondon and Yoshinori Muto in the second half of Saturday’s game, Benitez is looking forward to some intense attacking competition this season.

“They did well,” he said. “They were trying hard, now it is just about improving the understanding with the rest of their team-mates. So they know what we want to do and how the other team-mates will react.

“Once they get that, they will be better, but with Muto, Rondon, Joselu and Ayoze (Perez), we have four different kinds of strikers, and that can be good.”