Darren Bent PA

TOTTENHAM striker Darren Bent believes the next month will determine if he has a future at White Hart Lane.

Bent netted his 11th league goal of the season as Tottenham kept alive their hopes of reaching the Europa League with a win over Newcastle on Sunday.

The England forward has started the last six games, but with Jermain Defoe having returned from a foot injury, Bent knows he could be dropped again.

The former Charlton striker knows the importance of playing regular first-team football at this stage of his career and says he will have to assess his long-term future during the summer.

When asked if the next few games will tell him everything about his future, Bent said: "Definitely. No-one likes to sit on the bench. I’ll have to see what happens and take it from there. I would like to have played more games and scored more goals.

"The manager has got his decisions. He’s got fantastic strikers and you have to bide your time.

"It’s always nice to win and get a goal. I feel I have been playing well the last couple of weeks."

Bent was watched by England boss Fabio Capello and he added: "My aim has always been to nail down a place in the Tottenham team on a regular basis.

"If you don’t play for your club regularly, you won’t play for England. As long as I can keep working hard and scoring goals, hopefully I’ll be in there."

Spurs were today waiting on the results of a scan to determine the severity of Michael Dawson’s ankle injury. The defender fell awkwardly and had to be taken off on a stretcher.

Boss Harry Redknapp said: "It’s either ligament damage or - hopefully not - a fracture, but I wouldn’t want to say at this point. It looked quite nasty though."