Newcastle United boss Steve Bruce has admitted frustration over Andy Carroll's lingering hip injury.

Carroll has now been sidelined for the past month and will miss Sunday's trip to Arsenal.

"The big problem for us is that Andy is still not right," said Bruce. "That's a concern going forward. We expected him to be okay (for Arsenal) but unfortunately he's not.

"Thankfully, it's not his ankle, but with this hip he gets to a certain level in his rehab and it isn't quite right. It's a big frustration."

Bruce added: "There was a time before Christmas when he made a few assists and started a few, and that's exactly why we brought him in.

"Unfortunately he's picked up this injury and it's drifted into five or six weeks, when we expected it to be 10 days.

"We're not putting a timescale on it, it's just the way it is."