Speaking our London-based correspondent from his Helsinki-flat. Saturday morning, the soft spoken media friendly international, disclosed that the injury that was feared to be a grave injury got healed satisfactorily, greatly allaying fears of an acute and urgent attention. “I can certainly confirm that am so far fully out of the agony and with freshness I hope to join team mates in training ahead of the League proper,” said Savage.
The Gambian has scored 47 professional career goals since his taste of Finnish football in 2008 and had spells with KVP and Honka before signing a three year contract for HJK Helsinki in February 2012 that will keep him in the Finnish capital until December 2015.
Savage’s side the reigning champions who lost 1-0 to SJK in the League Cup Semi final Saturday, paraded a second string side in that match and were traveling yesterday Sunday to honour a club friendly with Swedish side AIF before embarking on training camps in Turkey and Sweden.
“Our target is not only to reclaim the title but to reach a milestone in UEFA Club competitions,” said The Gambian midfield-right winger. His last international game for The Scorpions was on June 15 2013 under Coach Peter Bonu Johnson against Morocco in the FIFA 2014 World Cup qualifiers.
Carayol stretchered off in Boro stalemate
A seemingly serious injury to Mustapha Carayol overshadowed a decent defensive effort from Middleborough as they claimed a goalless draw at AFC Bournemouth in the English football championship Saturday. A game of precious little goalmouth incident was drifting to a tame conclusion with one minute left when Carayol twisted awkwardly close to the corner flag.
Carayol, 25, had to be stretchered off with a heavily strapped left leg amid fears that he has damaged his knee ligament. There was a hold up after the winger tangled with the home side veteran defender Ian Harte and went flying before landing heavily, in grimacing pain on the turf.
However applying the common sense fair play-option in respect to pitch injury, the host opponents stopped play to summon medics for Carayol, amidst thunderous applauds from the entire spectrum of attendance and even when he was leaving the field to be replaced by Curtis Main.
The injury capped a disappointing afternoon for Middleborough who lacked a cutting edge as they failed to force Bournemouth goal keeper Lee Camp into a single meaningful save. However they were solid and defiant at the other end that rather kept their host at bay. Statistics gathered between the two mid- table clubs, have shown Carayol’s battling Middlesbrough registering their eleventh clean sheet in 14 games while the ‘Cherries’- AFC Bournemouth collected a second tier clean sheet record with only four on the bounce. Boro will entertain QPR at home next Saturday.
Zico and FC Kairat lost curtain raiser
Powerful Gambian international striker Modou Ceesay -Zico and his club FC Kairat were on Saturday beaten 1-0 by Atyrau as they opened their account in the new season of the Kazakhtan Premier League. Kairat were upset at home when the visitors converted their first clear-cut chance through Nsereko’s beautiful piece of footwork in the 31st minute of normal service. Ceesay who scored 12 goals in 28 appearances last year was in full throttle upfront. The former Flemmings and Wallidan striker from his native, inked a two-year contract with FC Kairat since February 2013 on a free transfer following spells with Westerlo in Belgium and MSK Zilina of Slovakia.
Author: Pa Assan Badjan
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