Shearer is scouting for Newcastle at World Cup

Former Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer is on club duty at the World Cup finals.

The 35-year-old, who has admitted to being flattered by suggestions that he could be asked to join Steve McClaren's England coaching team, is performing a dual role in Germany.

Shearer travelled to the finals as a BBC television pundit, but has also taken the opportunity to run the rule over a series of potential transfer targets for the Magpies.

Manager Glenn Roeder, who is this week working on his UEFA Pro Licence at Warwick University, admitted: `While I am tied up with the course, it would be foolish not to take advantage of the fact that we have Alan Shearer very much in the middle of things in Germany, even though we do have our chief scout David Mills at the World Cup.

`Alan knows what we are looking for and we have had a couple of interesting chats in the past week and discussed one or two players who might do the trick for us.'

Shearer's glittering playing career drew to an end a few weeks prematurely as a result of a knee injury suffered with just three games of the Barclays Premiership season left to play.

However, he has since accepted the role of sporting ambassador for Newcastle, and while he has been adamant that he will take time out of football before considering a future in the game, he will represent the Magpies around the world and be used in an attempt to lure new signings to St James' Park.