The club are yet to place him on the transfer list, but furious chairman Freddy Shepherd was in no mood to let things lie as he prepared to punish the player.

“When Bellamy turns up at the training ground today, he will be met with a fine of two weeks’ wages, which is the maximum we can give him,” Shepherd told the Evening Chronicle.

“This is not about money. It is about a player thinking that he is bigger than a football club. Well, let me tell you that no individual, be it the chairman, the manager or a player is bigger than Newcastle United Football Club, even if that player is a multi-millionaire.

“Craig Bellamy was a fool to go on television yesterday afternoon. We told him not to do it and as far as we are aware, his agent advised him not to do it.”

Bellamy arrived for training this morning, knowing that he faced a backlash after an astonishing 48 hours on Tyneside, but was not training with the rest of the first-team squad when they emerged at their Darsley Park training headquarters.

Club officials privately insisted that there was nothing sinister about the fact that he was training in the gym.

But with the player looking to have used up his last chance, speculation continued to mount, with the transfer window due to close on Monday.