Former Newcastle United star Rob Lee expects manager Kevin Keegan to fully support jailed midfielder Joey Barton.

"Newcastle could take a hard stance, decide they've had enough and sack him," Lee told Setanta Sports News. "Or they could back him and say, 'you're in the last-chance saloon' and wait for him to get out, get fit and start again.

"You just wonder how many chances they're going to give him. This happened before Kevin was manager so he's got that in his favour.

"If he'd done it under Kevin and been warned for the last time - Kevin can be hard - he would have come down on him.

"I would expect him to back him but you never know what the Newcastle owners are going to say. Obviously they come into the equation as well."