Rafa Benitez is delighted to have locked down Paul Dummett to a new four-and-a-half-year contract with Newcastle United.

The 26-year-old left-back has been with the club since the age of nine and made his first-team debut in 2013.

Dummett has fought his way back into the Magpies first-team after a hamstring injury kept him out from the start of the season until mid-December.

The Spaniard said: "If you talk about players that are important for the team, normally people talk about goalscorers, midfielders, N010s but in modern football, there are not too many consistent left-sided full-backs.

"Paul is exactly that, he understands the game and you know what you can expect from him, week in, week out.

"That's important when you have a lot of big games. He's a player you can trust."