STEVE BRUCE does not expect Newcastle United’s injury situation to improve ahead of this weekend’s home game with Crystal Palace.

The Magpies manager was forced to make four changes to his side for Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Burnley, with Ciaran Clark, Jonjo Shelvey, Miguel Almiron and Allan Saint-Maximin all unavailable because of injury.

The quartet will spend the next few days recuperating in an attempt to make themselves available for Saturday’s penultimate home game of 2019, but Bruce is already preparing himself for the likelihood of them not recovering in time.

However, Fabian Schar should be part of the side to face Palace despite hobbling out of Turf Moor on Saturday night after sustaining a series of knocks in a bruising encounter.

“We really don’t know with the injured lads,” said Bruce. “We hope they’re not too serious. It would have been a huge risk to have played them, we couldn’t afford to do that.

“We hope they’re there or thereabouts for the weekend, but we’ll just have to wait and see. There are a few bumps and bruises coming out of the game, but you’d expect that.”

Chris Wood’s second-half header condemned Newcastle to defeat at Turf Moor, but Bruce felt the deciding factor in the game was the performance of rookie referee Tim Robinson.

Robinson infuriated Bruce as he failed to award Newcastle a free-kick when Chris Wood appeared to bundle over Federico Fernandez in the build-up to his winning goal.

The referee initially awarded Newcastle a goal-kick, only to change his mind and hand Burnley a corner. Ashley Westwood swung the ball into the middle, and Wood headed home from inside the six-yard box.

As well as feeling aggrieved at the manner of Burnley’s winner, Bruce also felt Robinson lost control of play in general, awarding a succession of free-kicks to both teams. The Sussex-based official also angered Bruce in August, when he failed to send off Leicester midfielder Hamza Choudhury for the foul that resulted in Matt Ritchie sustaining an injury that he has still not recovered from.

“Since Tuesday, we knew the referee was making his debut,” said Bruce. “You’re hoping the game doesn’t rest on a refereeing decision, but unfortunately that’s what we’re talking about. We feel aggrieved because we’re at the elite level and for me the referee looked short. For me, he didn’t look ready to referee a Premier League game.”