Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has frozen plans for a statue of Toon hero Alan Shearer outside St James' Park, it has been revealed.

The Daily Mail says the decision to honour record scorer Shearer, who netted 206 goals in 10 years with Newcastle, was announced by former chairman Freddy Shepherd on the night of the revered No 9's testimonial match against Celtic in May 2006.

But the project has been in mothballs this year because the Ashley regime do not want to commit to the project while trying to offload Newcastle.

Shepherd said last night: "I knew nothing about this, it's very disappointing indeed. The statues should have been completed by now."

And Shearer's representatives, WMG, have been informed the project is not happening.