Norwich City's visit to St James' Park is a must-win game for Newcastle – according to one player fighting to be fit enough to feature.

Daryl Janmaat was forced to withdraw from the Netherlands squad on Tuesday through injury, missing Euro 2016 qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Czech Republic after complaining of a stiff knee.

Newcastle are yet to win a game this season and prop up the top flight, six points and seven places behind Alex Neil's Canaries ahead of their 4pm visit on Sunday week.

United confirmed Janmaat's international withdrawal was 'precautionary' and are confident the Dutchman will be fit enough to feature in a game he believes Steve McClaren's side must win.

The Newcastle head coach, who joined from Derby in the summer, is under pressure following their winless start and the weekend's 6-1 defeat at Manchester City – where the visitors had taken a surprise lead but eventually collapsed as five-goal Sergio Aguero ran riot.

McClaren is also without a Premier League win as a manager since 2006, when he was in charge of North East rivals, Middlesbrough.

'We have to win against Norwich – that's the only thing we have to do,' acknowledged Janmaat. 'We showed it in the first half (at the Etihad) – we were really good. But they scored five in 10 minutes in the second half. That can't happen.'

Left-backs Massadio Haidara and Paul Dummett could be available for Norwich's visit, after knee and hamstring issues respectively.

Times have been turbulent on the Tyne for longer than this season, and John Carver has claimed his successor has had no significant say in Newcastle's summer recruitment.

The Premier League strugglers signed four senior players at a cost of more than £50m, while McClaren was also given a place on the club's board alongside his head coach role.

'The players they've bought were coming in whether I was the manager, Steve McClaren was the manager or you were the manager,' said Carver, who managed to secure top-flight survival as interim boss on the final day of last season.

'When I was there, I was watching (Aleksandar) Mitrovic and (Georginio) Wijnaldum. I knew they were targets already. There's a system in place of how they do business, and a boss can only succeed if they go in understanding that.

'I had no problem with it but Steve might, because he's new to it.'