United revealed he's suffering from a quad injury and have decided not to take him on the journey east.

Burns is the club's leading scorer, but coach Aurelio Vidmar insisted: “I’m not going to risk him.

"He’s an important piece to our structure so I would rather Burnsy rest for one week. If we take a gamble with him there is a possibility he could be out for 4-5 weeks and we can’t afford that."

Vidmar is hoping his team can make their chances count against a Newcastle side that has been gathering momentum.

“It will be a massive test for us," he said. "It is a game we need to win and if we really want to be serious contenders, the next couple of weeks are going to be crucial.

“We knew it was going to be quite tight and it is strange that only two teams have won any games.

"If we don’t get two victories in the next couple of games, it will start to get very difficult to chase Central Coast who are the benchmark at the moment.”

With five goals from three games, United has shown that it can find the back of the net but Vidmar conceded the team needs to improve its defending at set pieces.

“I’m really happy with the team going forward, we know we can score but sometimes we put a little bit too much pressure on the defence," he said.

"If we can organise the team a little bit better in terms of our set pieces then I’m very confident we can start to make a bit of noise.”