NEWCASTLE UNITED manager John Carver is facing a defensive selection crisis should Daryl Janmaat’s injury rule him out of next weekend’s match against Aston Villa.

Janmaat limped off during Saturday’s 5-0 defeat at Manchester City, which the Magpies head coach said was a precautionary measure.

“He has got a tight groin,” Carver told the club website on Sunday.

“I don’t think he’s too serious at the moment but it is tight and we took him off as a precaution.”

“You know me, I’m not going to make excuses.

“I’ll deal with it and just have to adjust accordingly, just get on with it.”

Carver only has four defenders – Janmaat included – to call upon, after Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Davide Santon both left the club in January, with Remi Streete going on loan to Rangers. Injuries to Paul Dummett and Steven Taylor worsened the situation, and if Janmaat was to miss out, Carver would have to shuffle his pack.

Carver would normally have moved Jack Colback into a left-back role, a position he played many times as a Sunderland player, which would see Massadio Haidara go right-back - but the midfielder picked up his tenth booking of the season and will miss the next two games. Carver, therefore would be most likely to bring Ryan Taylor, who made a 20-minute appearance at the Etihad, into the defence.

Taylor has recovered from the knee injury which ruled him out in November, but has admitted that his return to action was not exactly a fairytale one.

"We went into the game full of confidence after winning here back in October in the cup, but our confidence was zapped within a minute," Taylor told nufc.co.uk.

"We thought they might have an eye on their game against Barcelona and that we could capitalise on that, but we shot ourselves in the foot and everyone's faces tell the story.

"Being 3-0 down at half-time, we wanted to go out and try to win the second half. We wanted a goal to try and build our confidence back up, but it just wasn't to be.

"They scored early on and then got their fifth within another minute or two, and you look at yourselves and think 'hang on, let's not make this embarrassing'.

"I wasn't on the pitch at the time but it was tough to take, even as a substitute.

"For me, it was pleasing to get back on the pitch. I love playing for this football club and have done since the day I signed.

"I was given the chance to play about 20 minutes and it was nice to be back out there, although not in the circumstances of the game."

Taylor feels that a full week’s training is the perfect opportunity to heal wounds from the City game ahead of the visit of Tim Sherwood’s Villa side.

"We can build confidence through the week on the training pitch," he explained.

"We have to put it right against Villa and get three points for the fans, because we let them down.

"All we can do is apologise and try to correct it for them next Saturday."