Fulham midfielder Lee Clark is desperate to shake off a knee injury in time to face his old club Newcastle on Saturday.

Clark stayed in England to receive treatment on the medial ligament injury which has kept him out of the last two games while his team mates travelled to France for a friendly with Sochaux.

Clark, a boyhood Newcastle fan, said: "My target is to be ready for selection for Saturday, and hopefully I will be fine by then.

"I haven't gone to France so I can get a bit of fitness work in, but it's really a case of waiting and seeing what sort of reaction there is."

A fully fit Clark would give Jean Tigana a boost as Fulham seek to improve on their 12th place in the Premiership.

They come up against a Newcastle side who have made an excellent start to the season and are fourth in the table just three points off the top.

But Newcastle boss Bobby Robson has had a disciplinary headache with Keiron Dyer, Andy Griffin, Craig Bellamy and Carl Cort all sent home from a trip to Marbella after a boozy night out.

Fulham's break attracted fewer headlines but didn't exactly go to plan either.

They were forced to play their friendly at newly-promoted Sochaux's brand new stadium in freezing conditions.

Sochaux who are currently sixth in the French League dominated much of the match and scored six minutes into each half to win 2-0.

Bjarne Goldbaek forced a couple of good saves out of the French keeper while Maik Taylor had to make one oustanding second half save to keep the score down.

November 16, 2001 10:31