NEWCASTLE midfielder Kieron Dyer last night refused to call time on his Euro 2004 dream despite his latest hamstring injury ruling him out of the rest of the domestic season.

The England international played the full 90 minutes of Sunday's goalless draw at Aston Villa after missing the previous three weeks because of a hamstring complaint.

But the problem has flared up again and Dyer has resigned himself to missing the final month of the campaign.

His absence could not have come at a worse time for Newcastle with Craig Bellamy and Jermaine Jenas both facing lengthy spells out.

And the injury could have also have major repercussions on a personal note with Dyer hoping to force his way into Sven Goran Eriksson's 24-man England squad for this summer's European Championships.

Dyer made it into the squad for 2002's World Cup in Japan and Korea despite a struggle to regain full fitness following a knee injury on the final day of the season.

But Eriksson is adamant that he will be taking no injury gambles this summer, which leaves Dyer facing a race against time to prove he can overcome his latest hamstring trouble.

"It isn't going to help my (England) prospects," admitted the 25-year-old. "I know that, but hopefully the manager knows what I am capable of and I feel as though I have been playing OK despite my injury problems.

"I am absolutely gutted to be out at this stage of the season. I really thought the problems had cleared up - but they obviously haven't.

"I know the team is strong enough to have a good finish to the season. It's a shame that both Craig and I have suffered injuries at the same time, but the players are there to come in and see us through in Europe and hopefully get us that fourth spot in the league."

With both Jenas and Dyer almost certain to miss tomorrow's UEFA Cup semi-final first leg against Marseille, Newcastle's midfield resources will be stretched to the limit as they look to give themselves something to defend in a fortnight's time.

But, in left winger Laurent Robert and left-back Olivier Bernard, the Magpies possess the perfect pair to run the rule over their continental opponents.

Robert, in particular, still takes a keen interest in the French game, and United goalkeeper Shay Given has revealed that he has been making sure his teammates know what to expect on Thursday night.

"I don't know a lot about Marseille but we've been watching the videos," said Given, who celebrated his 28th birthday yesterday. "Laurent knows a lot more about them than anyone else from watching all of the French football on TV.

"But our scouts have been watching them and Liverpool played them earlier this year so hopefully we can get some help from them.

"We've spoke to Laurent about them and he says that they're a good team, but not a side that we can't beat.

"We know about (Didier) Drogba up front who's probably their main man. He's a top class player and they've obviously got Barthez in goal as well. But we're confident we can get the right result."

United have already confounded the critics who suggested their European campaign was as good as over when they failed to reach the group stage of the Champions League following a shock qualifying round defeat to Partizan Belgrade.

Entry into the UEFA Cup seemed like small consolation at the time, but wins over NAC Breda, Basle, Valerenga, Real Mallorca and PSV Eindhoven have taken Newcastle to the brink of their first European final appearance for 35 years.

The Magpies haven't reached the last four of any European trophy since they won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969, but Given insists a semi-final appearance will be worth nothing if it ends in defeat.

"We're a few games away from winning something," said the Republic of Ireland international. "But the bottom line is that we don't want to finish the season saying 'Well at least we got to the semi-final'. That doesn't mean anything and we want to go all the way. We've played a lot of games and hopefully we can win it."

l Newcastle yesterday announced a new sponsorship deal with Northern Rock which is understood to be worth £25m.

The new deal extends the bank's current sponsorship which began last summer, and will run until the end of the 2009-10 season.

l Former Newcastle goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson died yesterday at the age of 73. Simpson, who made 297 senior appearances for the club, kept goal at Wembley as the Magpies won the FA Cup in 1952.