Cole targets Porto

Andy Cole wants to get back into action in this Saturday’s Thomas Cook Trophy match against Porto.

The striker has been building up his fitness since returning to training after suffering knee cartilage damage in February but wants to play against the Portuguese champions.

“If I get half an hour or 45 minutes in that game I’ll be delighted with that. I need to play games but it’s been nice to get back into training, I’m getting the feel of training again and kicking on from there.”

The 34-year-old has also been explaining to Channel M’s “Inside MCFC” programme what City’s coaching staff have been asking of him since he started work again at Carrington.

“Unfortunately it’s been running, lots of running! I’ve been trying to do what the rest of the squad have been doing but on a different scale. There has been a lot of short stuff and endurance work, but also twisting and turning because of the knee.”

For such a dedicated and thorough professional, being forced to miss so much football this year has been hard.

“It’s not just the pre-season, there was the end of last season as well because I thought I might come back but that did not materialise. Hopefully in the next week or so I should be up to speed.

“I’ve not seen any of the pre-season games, I would have found myself getting more and more frustrated. Missing all those games last season and this pre-season has been murder!”