Fears Jack Cork could miss start of the Premier League season

Jack Cork's injury is seen to last night Jack Cork's injury is seen to last night

Jack Cork is a major doubt for the start of the Premier League season after injuring his ankle in a 1-1 draw at Bristol City last night.

The midfielder, who played in every game of Saints’ Championship promotion winning campaign, did the damage not long after coming on for his first preseason match.

Cork has been away with Team GB at the Olympics and was supposed to get 45 minutes of action for Saints to bed back in ready for the big kick-off at Manchester City a week on Sunday.

However, after going over on his ankle he is now very much touch and go to be ready that quickly.

Saints boss Nigel Adkins said: “Unfortunately we’ve lost Jack Cork by the look of it.

“He’s got his ankle all strapped up now.

“We will have to wait and assess but it looks as though he’s gone over on his ankle.

“That’s not ideal because it’s his first period of time in pre-season and we wanted to get more from him but it looks like he’s going to have a spell on the sidelines now.” The game itself was a generally quiet affair in terms of chances.

Jon Stead gave City the lead just before half-time but Billy Sharp levelled things up in injury time at the end of the game.

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Adkins was pleased with the progression he saw from his team.

“The KPI (key performance indicator) before the game was how we press the ball and we’ve been working on that so we’ve got an assertive press in the attacking third of the pitch to win the ball high up,” he said.

“We played a 4-4-3 system all preseason.

It’s new to the group of players that we’ve got an I think we’ve progressed very well through the pre-season.

“The way we pressed the ball, especially in the first half, we were very assertive with it, won the ball high up the pitch and on the odd occasion that we lost the ball we won it back very quickly.

That was the main KPI that I wanted out of them and I was very pleased.

“Second half we changed it round a bit to introduce Jack Cork whose been with the GB squad and Steven Davis who needed game time so maybe the tempo wasn’t as aggressive as the first half.

“First half we had some good opportunities to score and second half as well.

“Billy came on there and the one occasion we did put the ball in the aerial position for Rickie to knock down Billy has gone and scored.

“It’s different ways to win football but the ethos is still to pass it and pass it quickly and it was very pleasing when you look at it.”

Comments(17)

Seedhouse the Unrepentant says...
5:10pm Wed 8 Aug 12

That's a blow. Nigel obvious rates him highly and he's beginning to be recognised by others - Team GB. Hope it's trivial.

OSPREYSAINT says...
5:35pm Wed 8 Aug 12

It's the jinx of the Saints Official Calendar striking again, Jose Fonte next month, let's see if he gets crocked.

notaclue says...
5:43pm Wed 8 Aug 12

“We played a 4-4-3 system all preseason."?????
Perhaps Nigel thinks that our defence is so good now that we can do away with a goal keeper and play with 3 up front?
I like it!

Confucious says...
6:05pm Wed 8 Aug 12

What with Cork likely to miss the season opening and still no news of any more signings, I phoned the club this morning to seek advice on when to officially panic.

Of course it's important to get the various calibrations of worry lined up and timetabled. I told the St Marys' customer relations guy, Kevin, that I've already done bothered and then moved on through perturbed, apprehensive and disturbed. Today I switched to anxious which I consider one step before panic which would be due tomorrow.

Kevin said the underlings at the club had done the same but there was still vexation, jitteryness, woe and torment to go before panic is due.

As always, having total faith in the club, I've therefore resolved not to panic tomorrow. Kevin said it would also help to simply dread one day at a time - or indeed take the really critical decision not to think about it.

Top bloke Kevin.

Exiled Saint - front line eastern outpost of Gosport says...
6:05pm Wed 8 Aug 12

Why do we still not have cover at CB? If either of the two first choice get injured we are done for.

The thought of Rooney RVP and Aguero et al running at Jos and Jose is terrifying enough but the thought of them running at Seabourne and Jack Stephens is enough to induce heart failure.

Fatty x Ford Worker says...
6:08pm Wed 8 Aug 12

Skanks 6 Saints 0.

Baddesley Bill says...
6:18pm Wed 8 Aug 12

Fatty x Ford Worker wrote:
Skanks 6 Saints 0.
Have you ever been right with a prediction?

D4n1el says...
7:24pm Wed 8 Aug 12

Does anyone know why we were playing in the old away kit? Perhaps it'll be used as our third kit this season?

Tirau Dan says...
8:42pm Wed 8 Aug 12

D4n1el wrote:
Does anyone know why we were playing in the old away kit? Perhaps it'll be used as our third kit this season?
cos it's better than the new one!

insane saint says...
8:50pm Wed 8 Aug 12

live coming out of pompey. the employee's have been told to empty their desks and copy all mobile phone contacts and be ready for announcement. source a pompey employee and express fm

ghk230473 says...
9:41pm Wed 8 Aug 12

Saw corky today, he was about to have an x ray. Very nice nipper said he reckons he'll be out for a couple of weeks, did get done as he was trying to lift the ball out of a tackle. Also frustrated at lack of signings!

Saintsayer II says...
10:50pm Wed 8 Aug 12

I've heard we are waiting for a definite NO from Messi before we look for anybody else

St Retford says...
10:59pm Wed 8 Aug 12

Saintsayer II wrote:
I've heard we are waiting for a definite NO from Messi before we look for anybody else
I wouldn't rule it out. He must lie in bed at night thinking that, yeah, he's won the Champions League and may well be the best player of all time but can he get a deep fried Mars bar from Ted's Fish & Chips whenever he feels like it? It must eat away at him wherever he goes like the nagging sense he's left the iron on. There's only one way to fix it, Lionel; sign up.

batesieboy says...
6:31am Thu 9 Aug 12

notaclue wrote:
“We played a 4-4-3 system all preseason."????
?
Perhaps Nigel thinks that our defence is so good now that we can do away with a goal keeper and play with 3 up front?
I like it!
You really do not have a clue, do you?!

batesieboy says...
6:36am Thu 9 Aug 12

batesieboy wrote:
notaclue wrote:
“We played a 4-4-3 system all preseason."????

?
Perhaps Nigel thinks that our defence is so good now that we can do away with a goal keeper and play with 3 up front?
I like it!
You really do not have a clue, do you?!
sssshhhhh...No-one will notice the extra player.

dopplershift says...
10:02am Thu 9 Aug 12

Tirau Dan wrote:
D4n1el wrote: Does anyone know why we were playing in the old away kit? Perhaps it'll be used as our third kit this season?
cos it's better than the new one!
It is better! but probably the reason is our new away kit would have clashed slightly with their home kit and our home kit definitely would.

D4n1el says...
12:25pm Thu 9 Aug 12

dopplershift wrote:
Tirau Dan wrote:
D4n1el wrote: Does anyone know why we were playing in the old away kit? Perhaps it'll be used as our third kit this season?
cos it's better than the new one!
It is better! but probably the reason is our new away kit would have clashed slightly with their home kit and our home kit definitely would.
Maybe that means it will be our third kit this season? And as much as I loved the old kits, I'm getting used to the new ones. I can see what they were trying to achieve; making the kits purely red and white. Plus I'd be happy with whatever kit we have as long ad the colours don't change, because they're still the same saints wearing the kit.

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