John Carver defends Newcastle's January transfer decisions

Newcastle head coach John Carver has defended the club's decision not to buy a defender in the January transfer window.

Newcastle have been left with only four fit senior defenders after Paul Dummett was ruled out for up to 12 weeks with a knee injury suffered against Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

However, head coach Carver has insisted there was no need to recruit back-ups during the winter transfer window despite Steven Taylor's absence for the remainder of the season and the departures of Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Davide Santon and Remie Streete.

Carver said: "Two weeks ago, we were one player away from having a fully-fit squad. I was so excited about that. Who is to say that's not the end of it?

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"It's always a concern when you lose player, especially of the quality we have lost. You can get away with losing one or two young lads.

"There's nothing I can do about it. If you look at the injuries - Siem [de Jong], Cheick [Tiote], Dummett, Taylor, four of our big players have serious injuries, not muscle strains.

"You'd normally get one or two of those in a season - we got three in a week. It's a bit unfortunate. It's no good sulking or making excuses, that's life and we have to deal with it."

Dummett's injury is a particular blow as he can play at both left-back and in central defence, and while Ryan Taylor and Vurnon Anita have filled in at full-back in the past, Carver's only real option if either Fabricio Coloccini of Mike Williamson was missing would be to ask right-back Daryl Janmaat to move inside.

Carver said: "The good news is he doesn't have to have an operation, but he is out for between 10 and 12 weeks.

"It's quite ironic because Yannick Bolasie, who I know really well, rang me and apologised. He said, 'It was an accident, John', and I said, 'I know it was. It wasn't your fault'. He was concerned about it and it was just a clash of knees, a total accident, a freak accident."

The knee injury with which Tiote returned from the African Nations Cup is still being assessed, although the signs are that he too could face a lengthy absence.

De Jong is likely to miss most, if not all, of the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery to repair a collapsed lung