Bellamy warned over assault

Craig Bellamy will play for Newcastle against Southampton this afternoon despite receiving a police caution over an assault last Monday night involving a Newcastle university student, Charlotte Smith (21).

The matter is closed legally with the police but the club are likely to take disciplinary action if they find Bellamy guilty of misconduct.

"I expect a high standard of behaviour from my players," said Newcastle's manager Bobby Robson yesterday. "But we'll get this game over with first and our investigation will then be ongoing." The minimum Bellamy can expect if found guilty is a fine of two weeks' wages.

Bellamy (22), is alleged to have kicked and punched Smith to the ground while in the company of his Newcastle players, Kieron Dyer, Carl Cort and Wayne Quinn. The players had been out on Newcastle's Quayside, in a nightclub called Sea.

Smith and two flatmates had been talking to the players in the nightclub but left to get a taxi when Dyer's silver Mercedes is said to have pulled up and offered them a lift to nearby St Peter's Basin, where Quinn lives. The incident is said to have occurred outside his apartment.

At 3.20 a.m. on Tuesday Smith made a complaint to Market Street police in Newcastle having checked the players' identities on a Newcastle United website, a friend told the Newcastle Evening Chronicle. "Charlotte doesn't want to talk about what happened - it's too difficult," said the friend, who added that Dyer "acted like a gentleman".

Bellamy signed for £6 million sterling from Coventry City last summer. Earlier this season he was sent home from Spain, having failed to turn up for a dinner in honour of John Hall.