KIERON Dyer was last night withdrawn from the England squad to face Portugal this Saturday after suffering a recurrence of his shin splints problem in Newcastle United's 2-2 draw with Liverpool.

Dyer was in pain after the game at Anfield after failing to shake off an injury that plagued him for much of last season.

Sir Bobby Robson said: "We're withdrawing Kieron because he's struggling with shin splints.

"I can't see him being available for Saturday and there's nothing we can do about the injury.

"He must run two miles more than everyone else on the pitch. He feels all right until he stops and walks, and then he has these intense spasms of pain.

"He does it on hard grounds; we need soft grounds for him to feel better."

The loss of Dyer will be a major blow to Sven-Goran Eriksson, who has seldom had a fully fit Dyer at his disposal during his reign as England coach.

It is worrying, too, for Newcastle, who by Robson's admission rode their luck to snatch a point from last night's thrilling encounter with Liverpool.

The arrival of substitutes Laurent Robert and Craig Bellamy transformed the game, and Robson said: "We had £30m worth of players on the bench and I was only going to use them if we were in trouble.

"They're both about a week behind where I'd like them to be but I was forced to put them on.

"It looked like we were buried at sea at 2-0 down but Gary Speed's goal gave us a bit of heart and after that I had a feeling we'd get something out of the game.

"In the end, we looked the most likely team to score a winner and Alan Shearer was unfortunate in the last minute. But it's a very good point."

Robson does not want Bellamy to link up with Wales after the striker went into last night's match having made just one substitute's appearance in the last six months.

The Newcastle manager added: "Craig is absolutely shattered.

"If he plays for Wales and comes back injured I will go ballistic, and so will the chairman, our medical team and Dr Steadman.

"He hasn't even played a reserve team game and I'm sending him to Morecambe to play an hour for the reserves on Tuesday."