ALAN SHEARER has asked Obafemi Martins to prove his bravery by playing through the pain barrier for the rest of the season.

Martins, who dismayed Shearer following his late withdrawal from last Saturday’s clash at Stoke, has been handed an opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to Newcastle and declare himself available.

A scan has revealed the Nigeria striker is suffering from a hernia problem and he has not trained all week.

As Shearer prepared for Sunday’s crucial clash at Tottenham, he outlined Martins’ four options: rest, injection, operation or play.

During his ten years as Newcastle’s number nine Shearer proved his courage by repeatedly shrugging-off niggling injuries. He hopes Martins would take a leaf out of his book.

“We know obviously what we want him to do, it is just a case of how much pain that will cause him,” said Shearer. “It is a matter of wait and see. An op would rule him out for the season.

Rest we’d lose him two or three weeks, the same for an injection. The favoured option is to try and play through the pain barrier and see where we get at the end of the season.

“You’ve always got players who’ve had a knock or playing with injuries or injections particularly at this stage of the season.”

Mark Viduka has made a surprise return to the squad as Shearer musters all of his available firepower to break down a Spurs defence who have secured four clean sheets in their last seven games.

And the manager denied there was any lingering illfeeling between himself and Martins.

“He knew I was disappointed with the timing of things. But is it an ongoing problem? No. We can’t afford to have any problems like that, we have to keep everyone on side. We have not ruled him out of Sunday.

“Having had hernias myself, sometimes you can play through and not do any more damage. We need every body available to us.”

Steven Taylor and Peter Lovenkrands will be put through their paces today in a bid to prove their fitness but Jose Enrique has failed to recover from a knee injury and will not be risked.

After dropping Fabricio Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez last weekend, Shearer confirmed he is not prepared to let players’ egos influence his team selection.

“I just felt that was the way we had to go regarding bringing people in and leaving people out. I explained it to the players.

One or two were disappointed, as you’d expect.

“I might have to make a few more decisions this weekend. That is what I have been employed for, to make some decisions in the next eight weeks that hopefully will get us out of trouble.”

Shearer cited his tougher training regime as a factor in Newcastle’s late rally at the Britannia Stadium and a shortening injury list.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries. I don’t know whether its fate or the (training until) 4 o’clock thing but a lot of those injuries are clearing up.

You’ve always got players who’ve had a knock or playing with injuries or injections particularly at this stage of the season.”

The manager also reflected that some of his players required a hard line approach.

He added: “Some need a kick up the backside or pushed harder than others, I’m learning that all of the time.”