Newcastle United defender Steven Taylor has been cleared of serious ankle injury.

The Daily Mail says Taylor has given crisis club Newcastle a massive boost by sailing through a scan on his damaged ankle and setting his sights on their key relegation battle with Stoke.

Newcastle chiefs were bracing themselves for losing their England Under 21 defender for the rest of the season after fearing he had torn ligaments in last Saturday's 3-1 home defeat by Arsenal.

But he was given the all-clear late Tuesday last night after a scan showed he had suffered nothing worse than bruising.

"There were real worries about how long he would be out for," said a Newcastle insider.

"People were talking about a month being the worst-case scenario, but if a tear had shown up on the scan, that would have been it for the season. Now he could be back in two weeks."