Robson: I nearly left Kieron out

Newcastle boss Bobby Robson was stunned with the challenge that put Kieron Dyer out of the World Cup.

'The Moroccan wiped out one of our stars and gets applauded off the pitch,' he said. 'It was a red card and it was violent play. Tahar El Khalej came in from behind and Dyer was doing what he does best, which is getting behind defences and he was on his way to goal when the challenge came in.'

It was only Dyer's 15th League start of the season and had he played more often, Robson would have rested him.

'I nearly left him out to protect him,' said Robson.

'I did that for Andy O'Brien but Shay Given really wanted to play and Kieron wanted to as well because he's played so little and we wanted to improve his 90-minute conditioning.

'He actually hurt his arm in the first minute. It is very swollen and at one stage we thought there was a crack.'

Dyer's captain, Alan Shearer, also condemned the tackle, saying: 'It was a bad challenge, out of order and there was no need for it on the last day of the season.'

El Khalej, 33, who has played in two World Cups for Morocco, said yesterday he intended to visit Dyer to apologise in person.