John Carver Insists He Acted As Newcastle Peacemaker... As Rumours Of Fight Surface

Newcastle United boss John Carver revealed the Magpies' first training session of the week got "quite lively" - and rumours have now surfaced that Papiss Cisse and Daryl Janmaat even came to blows. Carver defended his decision to attend a charity golf day and to allow his players to have two days off at the beginning of this week, insisting it prevented tensions from getting out of control. Yet Twitter rumours arose alleging that striker Cisse and right-back Janmaat had been involved in a "training ground fight", although they were unconfirmed. https://twitter.com/garvey_patrick/status/601113697549996032 https://twitter.com/garvey_patrick/status/601119040254410752 Alongside @garvey_patrick's assertions, a few others also claimed to have heard the rumours - although the declaration that "one of the academy coaches" told them is a weak justification seeing as Newcastle are short of those right about now. Speaking at his press conference ahead of West Ham United's visit to St James' Park on Sunday, Carver did admit things had been "lively" in training though. He said:

"When we came in to train it was so lively I was convinced I was right to have given them two days off. "In fact, it was really near to the knuckle at times, and that was great. "We got all the Under-21 players and all the senior players together - and it got quite lively."

Hopefully Carver's assertions that things were "near to the knuckle at times" does not allude to a training ground bust-up between Newcastle's top scorer and one of their only available senior defenders - although, if it does, then at least some much-needed passion and determination has been shown. Following Sunderland's draw at Arsenal on Wednesday night, either Newcastle or Hull City will be relegated on Sunday. For all the latest NUFC News, Views and Transfers make sure to follow WhatCultureNUFC on Twitter and Facebook.