Ex-Newcastle boss John Carver insists the club's board did not tell him to leave Jonas Gutierrez out of the side.

Gutierrez is suing Newcastle for disability discrimination over the way he was treated by the club following his cancer diagnosis in October 2013.

The Argentine claims Carver did not start him to avoid triggering a 12-month contract extension.

"All selection decisions were taken independently by me," Carver told an employment tribunal on Tuesday.

"The board were not even made aware of my thoughts on team selection until a couple of hours before the match.

"Even if the board had wanted to prevent me from selecting any particular player, including Jonas, it would have been very difficult for me to find an alternative first-team player because of injuries."

When he was released by the Magpies in May 2015, he had only started 78 matches during the contract period and 80 would have triggered an automatic one year extension.

"If Jonas did have concerns that the club was treating him unfairly because of misconceptions it had about his cancer, I am very disappointed that he never raised this with me," added Carver.

"My mother passed away from cancer four years ago and I was particularly sensitive to Jonas' situation."