Shearer set for Martins inquest

ALAN SHEARER is set to meet Oba Martins today to clarify why he left it so late in the day to reveal the groin injury that kept him out of the 1-1 draw at Stoke City.

Shearer is staying cool about the situation but was mystified when Martins announced he had a groin injury just hours before the game.

And especially after Andy Carroll's star performance, the African's place in the last six games is now in question.

However, Shearer, who has instilled a more disciplined approach to life at the training ground, will not be taking the Nigerian's withdrawal from the game lightly, with no evidence of the muscle injury beforehand and several days of working on a 3-4-3 system wasted because of the incident.

Shearer told the Chronicle: "Oba informed us at 11am that he wasn't fit. That was disappointing considering we'd worked on a particular system over the past few days with no problems."

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