Newcastle sweat over Willems injury

(Reuters) - Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce believes Jetro Willems could face a long spell on the sidelines after the Dutch defender suffered a serious injury against Chelsea in the Premier League.

Willems, who is on a season-long loan from Eintracht Frankfurt, was carried off on a stretcher in the first half of Newcastle's 1-0 win on Saturday, and Bruce fears he has suffered cruciate ligament damage.

The injury leaves Bruce short on the left side of the defence, having lost Paul Dummett to a hamstring problem last weekend.

"It looks a horrendous injury for Jetro, which is a big blow to us," Bruce said.

"We fear it's his cruciate. We're due a bit of luck. I've never known anything quite like it over the last few weeks so we're due.

"It doesn't look great with Paul Dummett either so in that area in particular, all of a sudden, within four or five days we've got a problem."

Victory over Chelsea moved Newcastle up to 12th in the standings with 29 points from 23 games.

(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)