It's Oba and out for Martins

OBAFEMI MARTINS’ Newcastle future is in the balance after his late withdrawal from the relegation clash at Stoke.

Fuming Toon boss Alan Shearer will read the riot act to the Nigerian striker this morning after he pulled out of the 1-1 draw with a groin injury.

Shearer said: “I wasn’t too happy I got the call at 11 o’clock, particularly after we trained all Thursday and Friday and had massages on Friday evening and there was no sign of it.”

He was particularly annoyed as the team had been working all week on a three-man attacking system which involved Martins, skipper Michael Owen and Shola Ameobi. But all that was thrown up in the air by Martins’ late pullout.

Shearer was clearly still angry after the game and added: “He said he’d woken with a sore groin and was unable to play.

“We got the doctors and physios to have a look at him and he couldn’t play. I’m not happy with the situation, to find out so late in the day.

“After working the last two or three days on a particular system it was disappointing and we had to reshuffle the pack.

“He didn’t sleep in that’s not true. I spoke to him and asked him and I’ll speak to him again.”

Toon coach Colin Calderwood was told to calm down after he got into an argument in the Stoke directors’ box over his relaying of instructions to the bench via a radio.