DWIGHT GAYLE is set to be sidelined for up to four weeks as Rafael Benitez attempts to ensure the Newcastle United striker’s availability for the final month of the season.

Gayle’s first start for more than a month was curtailed after just over half-an-hour of Monday’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa as he suffered a recurrence of a long-standing hamstring complaint.

The Championship’s leading goalscorer initially pulled up in his side’s January win at Brentford, and his return to action had been delayed because of his previous history of hamstring trouble.

Benitez had been mindful of Gayle’s lengthy track record of hamstring problems in the build-up to last weekend’s game, and had kept the striker out of the starting line-up for the 2-2 draw at Norwich largely because he wanted to guard against another breakdown.

Newcastle’s medical staff conducted a series of tests yesterday, and Gayle has already been ruled out of this weekend’s home game with Bristol City. He is extremely unlikely to feature in next week’s game at second-placed Brighton, and is also set to miss the trips to promotion rivals Huddersfield and Reading that follow the visit to the Amex Stadium.

Those three games could go a long way towards determining Newcastle’s promotion fate, but having regularly cited April’s seven matches as a potentially-decisive spell, Benitez wants to do everything he can to ensure Gayle is available for the final weeks of the season.

Aleksandar Mitrovic deputised effectively in the final hour of Monday’s game, and Benitez is confident that in the Serbian international and Daryl Murphy, he boasts sufficient attacking cover to be able to tread carefully when it comes to Gayle’s latest rehabilitation.

Mitrovic is a strong favourite to return to the starting line-up on Saturday, with Murphy set to return to the squad after failing to make the match-day 18 against either Norwich or Villa.

Monday’s win enabled Newcastle to reclaim top spot from Brighton, with Chris Hughton’s side having leapfrogged the Magpies when they won at Barnsley on Saturday afternoon.

Newcastle have only ceded pole position on three occasions since the middle of October, and while you do not get any prizes for being on top of the table at this stage, goalkeeper Karl Darlow admits there is a psychological advantage to be gained from being at the top of the pile.

“Every time we lose top spot, we want to win it back,” said Darlow. “To do that on TV, it was an excellent performance, a very solid one. I think we’re on a good run at the moment.

“We know it’s a tough month with tough games to be played - we just want to come out of it knowing we’re in the top two and still battling for that top spot.

“We just need to keep ticking over like we have been, and keep winning games. We’re on a seven-game unbeaten run (in the Championship), which is good, and we need to keep that going as long as possible.”

Having shipped two goals at Norwich six days earlier, Newcastle rediscovered their defensive solidity on Monday as they kept their 14th Championship clean sheet of the campaign.

Jamaal Lascelles produced a much-improved performance from his error-strewn display at Carrow Road, and with Newcastle offering a potent attacking threat even without Gayle, Darlow feels defensive performances will be key in the next few weeks.

“We’ve scored in near enough every game this season, so we know if we’re solid at the back we’ve always got a good chance,” he said. “Sometimes it can be a bit difficult at home because we know teams like to camp back and hit us on the counter-attack, so we stuck to our game plan of being pretty solid knowing they had good players on the ball. Thankfully, we had a couple of chances and put them away.”

The clean sheet was especially welcome for Darlow, with the goalkeeper’s howler having enabled Norwich’s Cameron Jerome to score into an empty net during the Magpies’ previous game.

Darlow looked much more assured on Monday, with his stunning first-half save from Jonathan Kodjia proving a key factor in his side’s success.

“I was massively disappointed after Norwich,” he said. “But that’s the life of a goalkeeper. If you look anywhere around the world, every single goalkeeper has made a howler at some point. But I made a good save on Monday, and hopefully that will keep me ticking over for the rest of the season.

“It’s not nice (when you make a mistake) because you think about it all the way through. Mentally, you have to deal with it. It’s what you’re paid big money to do at the end of the day, especially away from home with the crowd getting on at you.

“It was one of those where I really had to concentrate and make sure I was solid for the rest of the game, which I think I did. I was thankful I got through that one, and we move on from it.”