Early Early Doors

Happier times for Paterson and Burnley fans of all ages.

Too much news to wait until tomorrow, so here we go, extra early.


Bassong has a knee injury on top of the head/face injuries he suffered against Chelsea:

Tottenham centre-back Michael Dawson's return from injury has handed Harry Redknapp a timely boost to help ease the defensive crisis at White Hart Lane.

Spurs boss Redknapp saw Ledley King pick up a hamstring problem against Chelsea at the weekend and Sebastien Bassong suffered head, neck and knee injuries, while Jonathan Woodgate could require further surgery on the groin complaint that has kept him out all season....

It is unclear when Redknapp's other three centre-backs will return, although there are hopes of Bassong coming back for Saturday's clash against Burnley.

"Ledley's injury is going to keep him out for a while, Jonathan Woodgate has had an injection and we'll give it 10 days to see if that will clear his problem - if not he'll have surgery," Redknapp continued.

"He's already had surgery so I don't know how much surgery you can keep having. Sebastien took that bang on the head. That is okay but he also damaged his knee when he went down. Hopefully that will settle down."

That same game seemed to have cost Chelsea Drogba to a calf injury.  And while he's been passed fit, Times Online suggests that he'll be rested at Wigan.

The Ivory Coast forward will take no part in tomorrow's Carling Cup tie against Queens Park Rangers, is unlikely to be involved in Saturday's Barclays Premier League match away to Wigan Athletic and is suspended from next week's Champions League game against Apoel Nicosia. Ancelotti is focusing on getting him fit for Liverpool's visit to Stamford Bridge in a fortnight instead, although Chelsea insist the scan was precautionary.

He's surely worth holding on to (at least until January) if he'll miss just the one match. And who knows... maybe he'll make a game-winning cameo a la Crespo against Wigan three years ago!

In the other center back injury story of the week, it now seems that Givet will miss at least one match, though the injury isn't long-term.

Blackburn Rovers have been boosted by the news that Gael Givet's knee injury is not as bad as initially feared.

Rovers boss Sam Allardyce expressed his concern that the Frenchman could be out for some time after he twisted his knee at Everton...

However, while Blackburn will be without the former Marseille man for the visit of Aston Villa this weekend, he should be available for the trip to Arsenal a week later.

More recently, last night's Carling Cup match was disastrous for Burnley, and not just because they failed at the first hurdle in a competition they made their name in last season.  Rather they've lost striker Martin Paterson for months.

Burnley have announced that striker Martin Paterson will undergo knee surgery after sustaining an injury during Tuesday night's Carling Cup defeat to Barnsley.

Jensen was also strechered off, but he may still make the weekend's match at Spurs.

Jensen could be fit to face Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend after being diagnosed with a dead leg...

"We have had mixed news on the two lads," manager Owen Coyle told the club's official website. "As we thought, Brian suffered a dead leg and I am hopeful he could be fit for the weekend.

"But the news on Martin Paterson is a little worse. He has tweaked a cartilage and will undergo an operation tonight [Wednesday], at which point we will know further how long he will be sidelined for."

It would be a huge boost to Spurs if Jensen wasn't fit as he's Burnley's only senior keeper.  And to be fair, Spurs attack was the value pick of the weekend anyway.  As for Paterson... well, this looks to give Nugent a run in the side.  Good on anyone who picked him up before his price jumped after his brace at the weekend.  And Burnley have also lost Chris McCann to a knee injury so Joey Gudjonsson becomes another cheap option in midfield alongside the likes of Rodwell, Dyer, and Cattermole.

In non-injury news, Tuncay played in Stoke's Carling Cup match last night earning a PK, two assists and at least one shot on target from a free kick.  Would have been a great night in the league!  I don't expect we'll see him against ManU and nor would I think you'd want him in your fantasy team for that match.  But after that... who knows.  Even Stoke is hard to predict this season.  What's a fantasy manager to do?