Cork A Good Fit On Return

Main Club Sponsor

TICKETS

SHOP

Midfielder happy to be back in business to help Clarets win their fight

2021-04-24T08:10:46.601Z

Cork A Good Fit On Return

Midfielder happy to be back in business to help Clarets win their fight

2021-04-24T08:10:46.601Z

Dyche: We Need Things That Can Win, Not Just Work - Image 1

Jack Cork is delighted to be back again to help the Clarets’ push for Premier League safety.

Cork has endured a rare injury-hit campaign following a lengthy battle to recover from a fractured foot he sustained in the post-lockdown period last summer.

A brief spell out with a hamstring injury which interrupted his comeback last month has limited the midfielder to just 10 top-flight appearances so far this term.

But the 31-year-old – a mainstay of the Clarets’ line-up in his three different stints at Turf Moor – returned to starting duty for the first time since early March in a new-look midfield line-up at Manchester United last weekend when Josh Brownhill moved into a more advanced role.

And whether or not manager Sean Dyche repeats the exercise of playing an additional central midfield player at Wolves on Sunday or in subsequent fixtures this season, Cork is ready to play his part in the Clarets’ bid to prolong their top-flight status.

“It was enjoyable to play in that formation,” Cork, who played the 500th club game of his career earlier this season, told Clarets+.

“It was quite hard on Vyds, because he has been playing well and scoring goals. But it was a tactical change and Brownie did brilliantly in that role and it was good to play alongside him and Westy.

“Hopefully I can stay fit now and try to play as many games as I can.

“It's probably the first long-term injury I have had, so it's been tough at times. It's nice to be back out doing what you enjoy and coming back into it and if I can help the team as well - brilliant.

“We have got a very experienced squad who have played a lot of Premier League games between us. We should know, and we do know, how to get us out of this situation. Lots of lads have done it before.”

Despite a burst of three successive defeats, the Clarets remain six points clear of the relegation places thanks to an excellent run of form either side of Christmas.

That lifted Dyche’s men clear of the bottom three and included a 2-1 win over Wolves at Turf Moor just before Christmas.

A repeat against a side sitting 12th in the table would go a long way towards guaranteeing safety by opening up a nine-point gap above 18th-placed Fulham, who don’t play this weekend.

And Cork hopes the kind of performance the Clarets gave at Old Trafford, where second-placed United took the points from a 3-1 win thanks to a late deflected strike and an injury-time breakaway, will produce some reward at Molinuex and some breathing space.

“To get so far when you feel you deserve from the game and have a deflected goal like that is quite hard to take,” added Cork, whose nous and know-how could be key in the closing weeks of the campaign.

“But we will pick ourselves up. It’s a game where if we had got something we would have been happy, but the focus now is on the next few games.

“We are really motivated for it (on Sunday). It’s one of the games we are looking at to get points.

“We played brilliantly against them earlier in the season. We put in a really good performance and got a win and hopefully if we can go there with the same attitude, we can get a similar result.

“We will go into the games as we have been doing, nice and aggressive and try and do a little bit more on the ball and hopefully it will get us a good result.”