Kalvin Phillips will make a rare start for Manchester City in their Carabao Cup clash against Newcastle, with Pep Guardiola admitting he is concerned about sustaining more injuries.

Jack Grealish and Mateo Kovacic are available but City are without John Stones, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, while Rodri is suspended for three games following his sending off against Nottingham Forest.

Wednesday’s trip to St James’ Park is the first of four successive away matches in less than two weeks, with City also visiting Wolves, Leipzig and Arsenal.

Guardiola said: “We used it, when we won a few times this competition, at the beginning of the season there are four, five, six players that maybe don’t play regularly and it’s perfect because it’s better than training sessions to play a game.

“But everyone was fit and we made a strong side. But now is an exceptional situation.

“We have a lot of players injured and a lot of players with a lot of minutes – with national team, with the team – and they have to rest because tomorrow is important but Wolves, Leipzig and Arsenal are much more important.

“The guys who didn’t play much are going to play and see what happens with the rest to try to make a good starting XI and travel there to win the game.

“There’s no doubt about that but I have to take a consideration that a lot of effort we have in this period, with many players, a lot of minutes, and we have to avoid for them to get injured again otherwise we’ll be in trouble.”

It will be only a fifth start for Phillips since his move from Leeds last summer, although he did play nearly all of the second half against Forest on Saturday following Rodri’s red card.

Guardiola said his side are only able to train for five to 10 minutes because of the need for recovery.

“We are used to it,” he said. “Previous seasons were the same. Yes you have maybe two or three more games for the (Club) World Cup but the rest is the same.

“The problem is a lack of rest, mentally especially. The seasons come with two or three weeks off, and this is nothing. In the future, with the Champions League longer and more teams, that is what it is. I complain a little bit on my side here and then after that forget it and go to the competitions.”

City won the Carabao Cup for four straight years from 2018 to 2021 but last season it proved their only disappointment, with Guardiola’s side suffering a shock defeat against Southampton in the quarter-finals.

Phil Foden has already talked about going for the quadruple as the only way to top last year, but Guardiola said with a smile: “Phil is so young, you understand with time.

“It’s nice to have that ambition but, as I said to the players, the ambition is the next game. Maybe in April, May, if you are still in all competitions you can start to think about it but, right now in the end of September, to think about the title is a big mistake.

“But if he believes that I will not be the guy to let him think the opposite.”

George Boughey is readying his Classic heroine Cachet for a tilt at the Prix de la Foret at ParisLongchamp this weekend following a pleasing workout on the Rowley Mile on Tuesday morning.

Last season’s 1000 Guineas heroine did not run between Royal Ascot last summer and this year’s St Leger Festival at Doncaster, an absence totalling exactly 15 months.

The Highclere Thoroughbred Racing-owned filly could finish only fourth in the Group Three Sceptre Stakes on Town Moor, but Boughey was far from discouraged given the length of her absence and the fact underfoot conditions were more testing than ideal.

In the immediate aftermath of that effort the Newmarket handler was in favour of sending Cachet back to the scene of her Guineas triumph for the Sun Chariot Stakes on Saturday week, but the likelihood of a sound surface in Paris this weekend has prompted a change of plan.

“I was pleased with Cachet this morning and she is a lot tighter than she was on her seasonal debut. Mathematically she is a lot fitter on the scales,” said Boughey.

“The ground looks like it will be decent in France and that is where we are leaning towards at the moment, plus there is a stronger favourite in the Sun Chariot (Inspiral) than in the Foret.

“The ground was too soft for her at Doncaster, but it should be a lot better in France at the weekend. It could end up raining in Newmarket and I don’t want to miss a chance like this.

“She will like the seven furlongs around the bend at Longchamp and we will make plenty of use of her. She is in good form and should run well.”

Another Boughey-trained filly to be put through her paces on the Rowley Mile on Tuesday was Soprano, who will be stepped up to Group One level in Saturday’s Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes.

Although winless since making an impressive start to her career at Newmarket in May, the daughter of Starspangledbanner has since been placed in the Albany at Royal Ascot, the Star Stakes at Sandown, the Sweet Solera at Newmarket and the Dick Poole Fillies’ Stakes at Salisbury.

With regular work rider Charles Eddery in the saddle, Soprano looked the part in her morning gallop and Boughey feels she merits a place in the Cheveley Park field.

He said: “I’m delighted with her. She worked with a decent four-year-old that is a five-furlong horse rated in the 90s and she showed plenty of pace. 

“Charles Eddery, who rides her regularly, was delighted with her so it is all systems go to the Cheveley Park. She looks better than ever.

“She is a very balanced filly, which is so key at Newmarket, and she won on her debut at the track. I think she has got to have a lively chance.”

Feed The Flame will bid to give veteran trainer Pascal Bary a long-awaited victory in Sunday’s Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at ParisLongchamp.

Bary has handled a host of top-class runners during his lengthy career, sending out Classic winners in France, Britain and Ireland as well as saddling three Breeders’ Cup winners.

However, he has yet to taste success in the crown jewel of French racing, with Sulamani coming closest when finishing a three-quarter-length second to Marienbard in 2002 after Croco Rouge finished third behind Montjeu in 1999.

The Chantilly-based handler has plenty of faith in his challenger this year though, with Feed The Flame having made huge strides since his racecourse bow in April, finishing fourth to the reopposing Ace Impact in the Prix du Jockey Club before going on to land the Grand Prix de Paris over the Arc course and distance in July.

While he had to settle for second place behind Fantastic Moon in his Prix Niel trial earlier this month, Bary believes the Kingman colt might find conditions more to his liking on Sunday.

He said: “He’s a very good horse, he has a very good temperament and he gets the mile and a half really, really well. I think on the day of the Arc, the ground will be slightly different and he will be more comfortable on that ground.

“Anything a bit softer than the ground he encountered in the Jockey Club, Grand Prix de Paris and Prix Niel would be appreciated.”

Feed The Flame was beaten two and a half lengths by Fantastic Moon – who could yet be supplemented for Sunday’s race – and Bary felt the decision to field King Of Records as a pacemaker perhaps played into the winner’s hands.

He explained: “I think I made a mistake by running a pacemaker because he worked much more for the German horse than he did for us. It’s not an easy race to run in because to bring a horse on from July 14 to the beginning of September, there’s not a lot of time.

“Christophe (Soumillon) sort of asked him when he came down into the false straight but at that point on that good ground, the German horse had taken off and Christophe was intelligent enough to just let the horse finish his race because he actually was probably missing a bit of work before he went into the race.

“The aim was not to have a race that was going to be too hard, but at the moment he was so far behind in the final straight, Christophe actually judged it was too late to ask him for a massive effort to bring him closer to the leader.”

Waiting tactics are usually employed on Feed The Flame and Bary does not anticipate any change to the plan in the Arc, even though he is likely to encounter the biggest field of his career to date, with 14 currently in contention after Sprewell dropped out at Tuesday’s second forfeit stage.

Bary said: “He’s a horse that knows how to accelerate and you have to ride him to his strengths. We have to adapt to the horse, he’s not going to adapt to us. In a race with a lot of pace and runners, this should not be an issue.

“If he is to the back of the field, there’s enough time to come forward. When he ran in the Jockey Club, Ace Impact was behind him and came through so he’s obviously the horse to beat. I don’t know much about the opposition but if Ace Impact can come forward, Feed The Flame is capable of accelerating.”

Feed The Flame is owned by Jean-Louis Bouchard and Bary is delighted to have a live contender for a long-standing ally.

He added: “It’s amazing that we have such a good horse towards the end of my career. Jean-Louis is very positive, we go to the race together and it’s a great opportunity.

“If he doesn’t win this year, he will win next year!”

Phil Jones is working towards his coaching badges and has started a sporting director course as the former Manchester United defender begins a “new journey”.

The 31-year-old joined the Red Devils from Blackburn in 2011, making 229 appearances and scoring six goals before leaving at the end of his contract in the summer.

Jones had endured an injury-hit few seasons, with his last competitive United appearance coming in the victory against Brentford in May 2022.

The PA news agency understands the 27-cap England international has not called time on his playing career and will keep that option open as long as possible, but he is looking towards the future.

“Start of a new journey,” Jones posted on social media.

“Great to begin the global football sport directorship course with the PFA business school, learning new things about the game, whilst also continuing to push ahead with my A licence and badges at the club that gave me so much. Excited to get started.”

Jones has been observing the younger age groups at United as part of his coaching development as he weighs up his next steps.

First-choice Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan is raring to go for the remainder of the Rugby World Cup after declaring his body is in “perfect” condition.

Question marks initially surrounded Sheehan’s participation in the tournament after he limped off with a foot issue during his country’s warm-up win over England on August 19.

The 25-year-old sat out bonus-point wins over Romania and Tonga before making his World Cup debut as a second-half replacement during Saturday evening’s memorable Pool B triumph over South Africa in Paris.

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Fit-again Sheehan is targeting further action when Ireland return to Stade de France on October 7 seeking to secure progression to the knockout stages in a “massive” clash with Scotland.

“For a first experience of a World Cup game, it doesn’t get much better, I don’t think, especially in a crowd like that,” he said, after his side were backed by tens of thousands of Irish fans against the Springboks.

“It’s definitely the best atmosphere I’ve played in. We fed off that a good bit.

“My body’s perfect now. I had a few weeks there where the medical staff did a great job to get me back in this time but I’ve no complaints at all now so I’ll be looking to get back into the squad.”

Victory over South Africa put Ireland in control of Pool B and propelled them to the cusp of the quarter-finals.

Yet Andy Farrell’s men, who are due to reconvene on Wednesday following a few days off, still have work to do to prevent a pool-stage exit.

Asked how much pressure beating the reigning champions takes off the Scotland match, Sheehan replied: “None. The job’s not done.

“We have a bit of luxury now that we have two weeks to lead up into the Scotland game but we can’t afford to take the foot off the gas at all.

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“The Scotland game is going to be massive. That’s obviously a massive win for us but nothing’s guaranteed at all so all eyes on Scotland now.”

The world’s number one team have won 16 matches in a row and suffered just two defeats in their last 30 outings.

Sheehan believes the remarkable run of results have helped enhance the unity in Ireland’s camp but insists Farrell’s squad must remain grounded.

“I think all of these big games bring you closer,” said the Leinster player, who is competing with provincial team-mate Ronan Kelleher and Ulster’s Rob Herring for a starting spot. “They add to the trust within the group.

“It definitely brings you tighter but you need to make sure you don’t get ahead of yourself and there’s a job to be done now against Scotland.

“We’ve huge confidence in our game plan and our approach to the games is really good. Our week’s prep has been on point for every game that we’ve won.

“We just double down on what we’re good at. We’re in a good place now and we just need to keep going.”

Wales scrum-half Gareth Davies says he is enjoying his rugby again during a World Cup campaign that has seen him produce record-breaking form.

Davies’ early touchdown in the 40-6 rout of Australia set a new World Cup best of eight tries for a scrum-half.

And it represents an impressive return to international rugby after he missed out on Wales’ South Africa tour last year, the 2022 autumn Tests and Six Nations campaign two months later.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland’s predecessor Wayne Pivac preferred players like Tomos Williams, Kieran Hardy and Dane Blacker in the scrum-half position.

And although Gatland was in charge for last season’s Six Nations, Williams, Hardy and Rhys Webb fought for the number nine shirt.

Crucially, though, a door opened for the 33-year-old when Gatland named Davies in the World Cup training squad, and he has not looked back.

He starred in the tournament warm-up victory over England and regained the number nine shirt for key Pool C wins against Fiji and Australia

“I love World Cups,” Davies said. “I love the build-up to them.

“It is the only time that we really get a full pre-season (with Wales). It has been a tough couple of months, but I have enjoyed it.

“Physically and mentally, I feel like I am in the best shape of my life. I am really enjoying my rugby again.

“We are all back to where we want to be under this management. We are fighting for each other, playing for each other and the environment is good, which is the main thing.

“We are enjoying our time off the pitch as well. We’ve got a good bunch of boys, and it shows.”

Davies, who made his Wales debut nine years ago and was the team’s starting scrum-half during the 2015 and 2019 tournaments, is once again excelling under Gatland’s direction.

He scored five tries at the 2015 World Cup, then two more in Japan four years later – including an interception effort in a pool-stage win against Australia.

“Warren has got his way,” Davies added. “It works for me and it obviously works for everyone else in the squad. It gets us all going.

“The other coaches as well, Mike (Forshaw) with defence, Kingy (Alex King) in attack and Humphs (Jonathan Humphreys) with the forwards. We’ve had a lot of changes with coaches, and I think that’s made the difference, to be honest.”

Wales’ crushing success against Australia secured a quarter-final place – the fourth World Cup in a row for them to achieve that under Gatland – and has set up a potential last-eight appointment with Argentina in Marseille on October 14.

“I thought our win in 2019 against Australia in the World Cup was big, but this is right up there,” Davies said.

“Momentum is key, especially in World Cups. We had a good week’s training preparing for the game, and I thought it showed on the pitch.

“We obviously won’t look too far ahead of ourselves. We have got a few days off to recover, and then we will focus on Georgia the following weekend.

“We have still got a job to do against them first, and then we will start looking at the quarter-final draw.”

One of the first thoughts that came into Liam Broady’s mind when he achieved a decade-long goal by securing a place in the top 100 was for the people who gave up on him.

By reaching the final of last week’s second-tier Challenger tournament in St Tropez, Broady guaranteed he would rise to 93 in the rankings when they are updated on Wednesday.

It is 12 years since the Stockport player, who is now 29, reached the boys’ final at Wimbledon and he told the PA news agency of his emotions, saying: “Mainly relief.

“The thing that’s been the goal that’s kept me going for 10 years has been ‘I will be top 100 one day’.

“It’s funny, with this stuff you never feel as good as you think, once you do it you’re like, ‘Oh is that it’? Now I’m already thinking about how can we finish the year strong, how can I go to Australia and maximise at the start of next year. But it is a big weight off my shoulders.

“I don’t know why but you always see a player who’s been in the top 100 differently. Even if someone’s made 99 and someone’s been 101, there’s a different sort of aura about that and I’ve been conscious of that for years.

“There have been plenty of British players that have been fantastic but never managed to cross that final hurdle. I didn’t want the same thing for myself, I wanted to be within that holy grail.”

It has been a rollercoaster of a career for Broady, who hit such a mental low a few years ago that he came close to quitting the sport.

He has had a turbulent relationship both with the Lawn Tennis Association and his father, who severed ties with the federation when Broady was a junior after his sister and fellow player Naomi had her funding cut.

Broady went against his father’s wishes by turning to the LTA before refusing funding again in order to try to repair the relationship, but the final blow came courtesy of the federation.

“I remember past regimes at the LTA – and I don’t hold the current situation responsible for this – but when I did get my funding cut I think I was 23 years old,” he said.

“And at the time they had this algorithm, they’d worked out statistically how many players make top 100 past a certain age and how long they stay there for and they had a stat that basically it wasn’t worth a player making it past the age of 23 or whatever it was.

“I remember Jo Konta at the time had had her funding cut and then the next year she made top 100 and as we all know, had a fantastic career.

“That was something that stuck with me for many years and that was one of the first things I thought of and I hope that people that have gone through stuff that I’ve gone through and have lost belief and had people tell them, ‘It’s too late, you’re not going to make it’ – if you’re willing to put in the work and the sacrifice, there’s no telling when you’re going to make it.

“Even if you make it for a week or for a year, it’s worth it in the end, I can attest to that.”

Broady freely admits he has not always helped himself with a lack of professionalism in his younger days but he has been on a steadily upward curve over the last four years.

This season he has performed consistently at Challenger level, while he achieved a career-best victory over then world number four Casper Ruud to reach the third round at Wimbledon.

By his side for most of the last 10 years has been coach Dave Sammel, who Broady credits for helping him navigate choppy waters on and off court.

“I’ve been through a lot of stuff,” he said. “But Dave was there from the start and he always believed.

“I think he’d be the first to say he’s had times where the belief has wobbled but he’s a great crisis management coach and that’s what I’ve kind of needed. He’s been probably the steadiest influence in my life over the last 10 years.

“I had a lot of stuff going on with my family, I had a lot of stuff going on all over the place, I’m a very chaotic person by nature. And Dave has been an emotional rock for me on and off the court and combined with that, he’s a great tennis coach.”

With top 100 ticked off, Broady is spending a few days back home for the first time since May and his priority over the remaining weeks of the year is to ensure he makes it into the main draw of a grand slam on ranking for the first time at the Australian Open.

So how high could Broady go?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m interested to see. Ask me in a year’s time. Once you’re in the top 100, I think it all comes down to runs you can go on.

“If you play well at the right tournaments then you can go as high as anyone. I’ve got no experience of knowing what that feels like so I’m just excited.”

Jean-Claude Rouget is in confident mood ahead of Ace Impact’s bid for glory in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday.

It has been quite the rise through the ranks for the son of Cracksman, who did not see the racecourse as a two-year-old and made his debut in the low-key surroundings of Cagnes-Sur-Mer in late January.

Another understated success at Bordeaux followed and he has since proved his class by landing a Listed race and the French Derby at Chantilly, before adding the Group Two Prix Guillaume d’Ornano to his tally at Deauville in the summer.

Ace Impact is the clear favourite to provide his trainer with a second Arc win following the success of Sottsass three years ago and while taking nothing for granted, Rouget feels there are no negatives.

“Why shouldn’t I be optimistic? I’m coming in with a horse that’s unbeaten,” he said on Tuesday.

“We know in any race anything can happen and we’re coming to the end of the season, but he gets three kilos from the older horses, which is important.

“I’m optimistic in the sense that he goes into the race unbeaten and has done everything we have asked him to so far.”

Following his mid-August triumph at Deauville, Rouget considered running his star colt in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown the following month, while he also had the option of getting a first taste of ParisLongchamp in the Prix Niel.

However, mindful of the fact Ace Impact had been on the go since the beginning of the year, he elected to keep his powder dry for the day that matters most.

Rouget added: “It’s very important that he stays a fresh horse because he started his season very early, which is not the usual start for a Classic horse.

“I didn’t want to run him last year in November, I wanted to wait and he then ran in January, so after he ran in Deauville I preferred to not run him again so that he has some freshness going into the Arc.

“It’s been six weeks (since Deauville) and the six weeks have passed very quickly.”

Ace Impact will be racing over a mile and a half for the first time this weekend, but Rouget does not expect him to be beaten for a lack of stamina, while the fact he has never run on the track is also not a concern for the trainer.

“Obviously we can’t be certain, but with the way he finishes his races and also the fact his sire was a winner over the distance gives us hope that he can stay,” he continued.

“If the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) had been over a mile and a half, as it was in the past, he would have won that.

“Last year Vadeni was in the same place for us and he ran really well (finished second to Alpinista).

“It is very rare I run a horse in the Grand Prix de Paris and after that there was just the Prix Niel, which didn’t hold any interest for me.

“I’m not worried about the course, he’s an easy horse once he’s settled in his race and there are plenty of horses that have won the Arc that also hadn’t run at Longchamp before.

“There was just no opportunity to do so, but it’s not something that bothers me.”

With the weather set fair in Paris for the rest of the week, underfoot conditions look likely to be quicker than is often the case for Europe’s premier middle-distance contest.

Rouget is therefore expecting there to be no excuses on the ground front, adding: “I think it is going to be good for everyone, which is an interesting point about this year’s race.

“In the past the race was often criticised for its heavy ground and the fact horses are tired, but this year I think the ground is going to suit everyone.”

Europe captain Luke Donald has no plans to follow the example of Thomas Bjorn and get a tattoo if his team regain the Ryder Cup in Rome.

Bjorn promised his players in 2018 he would get himself inked if they beat the United States at Le Golf National in Paris, which they comfortably did by seven points.

The Dane followed through on his word three months later, but Donald is not intending to follow suit if the result goes his side’s way at Marco Simone.

“No guarantees on the tattoo,” Donald said with a smile.

“I certainly don’t have any on my body, just to let you in. But I’m sure we can find a suitable way to celebrate if it goes our way on Sunday.”

Padraig Harrington had pledged to get a tattoo in 2021, but was spared the task after his side suffered a record defeat at Whistling Straits.

“If my team produce a winning week I will be getting a tattoo to mark the occasion, and I’m very comfortable that they only asked that much of me because I would have given more,” Harrington said at the time.

“I think it’s an unwritten rule, so it has come up in conversation. But definitely, it’s a given now in Europe: captain has to get a tattoo.”

Donald was speaking on the first official day of practice after sending his 12 players out in groups of four which offered a hint at several potential pairings.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry were in the first group alongside Sepp Straka and Tommy Fleetwood, with Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg in group two.

Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose, Robert MacIntyre and Nicolai Hojgaard made up the final group.

“In terms of the pairings, some of that is determined on media rotations,” Donald said. “Six of the guys today will be doing media, so you send those off in the early groups. So I wouldn’t read too much into it.

“Obviously we do have a plan in place and that plan can be adjusted throughout the next few days. The vice-captains are out there watching the players and seeing how they look and how they feel and all that goes into it.

“But yeah, there’s certainly a plan that is in place.”

Newcastle winger Harvey Barnes could be facing months on the sidelines as he awaits a specialist’s verdict on the foot injury he suffered at Sheffield United.

The 25-year-old limped out of Sunday’s 8-0 Premier League demolition job at Bramall Lane after just 12 minutes, and head coach Eddie Howe fears he could miss a significant proportion of the campaign with surgery a possibility.

Asked if Barnes could be out for some time, Howe said: “Yes, we’re fearing it’s going to be. It’s difficult. I don’t want to put a time on it until we get confirmation from the specialist, but I think it will be months rather than weeks.”

The England international, who joined the Magpies in a £38million summer switch from Leicester, suffered his injury as he pushed off to run in South Yorkshire and has since undergone a scan.

Howe said: “It’s an injury to a part of the foot just below the toe. I think it’s quite a substantial injury. We’ve had it scanned, we’re waiting now for a specialist’s opinion on what to do next, whether there’s surgery involved or not.

“I don’t think it was a tackle, I think it was just pushing off to run, a very unusual injury. I won’t go too technical because I’m not medically qualified to do so, but yes, very unusual.”

Any extended absence would come as a blow to both a player who is desperate to establish himself on Tyneside – Sunday’s game was just his second start for his new club – and his employers, who invested heavily in his services during their latest spending spree as they prepared for a season which includes Champions League football for the first time in two decades.

Howe said: “He was down after the game because he knew it wasn’t a normal injury where you feel a muscle and think that might be one or two weeks.

“This was a slightly more complex issue, and I think he probably feared the worst because there was no one around him and it was one of those mechanisms where he knew it wasn’t quite right.

“There’s no doubt he’ll be disappointed because he was very keen to show his value and worth and Sunday was an opportunity to do that. But whatever the injury is, we’ll support him and we know he’s a top quality player and he still has a massive part to play.”

Tom Curry has been pushing himself through a punishing training regime to ensure he is ready to face Samoa in England’s final World Cup group match.

Curry has played less than three minutes of the tournament in France after being sent off in the opener for a dangerous tackle against Argentina, resulting in a two-match suspension.

It continued his challenging start to the Steve Borthwick era, having missed the entire Six Nations and build-up campaign to the World Cup because of injury.

Now poised to make his comeback against Samoa on October 7, the squad’s most influential player in defence has been defying the instructions of England’s fitness guru Aled Walters to perfect his conditioning.

“Tom is a unique player in that I don’t think I’ve ever come across anyone so fit, or so willing to work hard and put himself through pain,” scrum coach Tom Harrison said.

“He just seems to be able to enjoy it and keep going. There was a conditioning session the other day where he finished his reps and Aled Walters was shouting at him, ‘Get out, get out’. And he just carried on running.

“He just stayed in and carried on running. And when he did finally decide it was time for time for him to get out, he left the drill and Ellis Genge started hammering him for leaving the drill! And you just saw him getting so angry about it!

“He is in phenomenal shape. He has been brilliant. Unfortunately he was suspended, but he was brilliant by not going, ‘Oh I’m suspended for these two games’. Instead he went, ‘How can I help England win?’.

“And the work he was doing to help make training hard and difficult for the guys playing, and also the work he was doing with the back rows, to add his experience and his knowledge to our team meetings has been exceptional.”

Lasse Sorensen has been studying fairytales after going back to school – now he is ready to write his own against West Ham.

Online lessons, assignments and a six-hour exam has made the Lincoln midfielder an expert.

The works of Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, which include the Emperor’s New Clothes, the Ugly Duckling and the Princess and the Pea, have been the focus.

Enrolling in the Voksenuddannelsescentre, adult education courses, Sorensen completed his Danish literature class in the summer, all part of the 23-year-old’s plan to earn the qualifications he missed growing up.

It is apt, playing for a club known for its recent romantic cup stories, as Lincoln target another against the Hammers in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.

“The school takes it right back to analyse fairytales, novels and old scripts from 300 years ago,” Sorensen tells the PA news agency, ahead of the third-round tie at Sincil Bank.

“So all the very boring stuff that I don’t think anybody really finds interesting, I certainly didn’t! I’ve done every fairytale Hans Christian Andersen has written.

“In Denmark you need subjects like Danish, maths, history and physics before you can do anything in later life. So I took Danish, the equivalent to A-Levels in England, so if I want to go to Uni one day, I can.

“When you play senior football a lot of it is games, games, games. There’s so much football.

“So, sometimes the best thing to do is leave and get your head off it. I was thinking ‘what can I do which can be beneficial?’ I’m a thinker so if something happens I’ll sit and think about it a lot, good or bad.

“I’ll sit and think if I don’t have anything else do to, so why not go back to education?

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“It can never be bad and the main thing was just to get my brain off football sometimes. Otherwise, on your CV, you’ve got a little bit to say you’ve played football for a few years and done nothing else.”

Leaving his home town, Vejen, and first team Esbjerg to join Stoke in 2016 Sorensen’s education took a back seat.

At just 15 he moved to England without any qualifications and, while there were English lessons at the Potters, football was the focus.

“Because I was Danish, I was just studying the language. I came to the club and then had to quickly learn as much as I could,” says the midfielder, who made eight appearances for Stoke before joining Lincoln in 2021.

“So on the Wednesday, which was normally when the English lads used to do the education, I spent my time learning English.

“The hardest bit of going back to school was just starting and getting your head around it.

“As much as I’ve enjoyed getting my mind off other things, it’s never the most exciting thing to sit down and do.

“But that was the good thing as well because you’ll say to yourself ‘you need to get it done otherwise you won’t get it.’

“It was disciplined, the hardest and the best thing was I had to be disciplined about it.”

His online studies culminated in the exam back in Vejen this summer with Sorensen’s graft paying off as he scored 10 – the equivalent to an A.

“I had to sit with 100 people in a big school hall with my laptop for six hours, you couldn’t speak either of course. It was a bit different to what I’ve done for the last eight years,” says the Denmark Under-20 international, who is also planning to start a financial advisor course.

He is now in a break from his studies as he prepares to start a maths course in a few months. Football remains the priority and the immediate one is another Premier League scalp.

Last season Lincoln reached the Carabao Cup last 16, where they lost to Southampton, as they added to the club’s cup pedigree after their impressive run to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2017 while still in the National League.

A shoot-out win at Sheffield United last month earned the Imps a crack at the Europa Conference League holders and Sorensen knows Mark Kennedy’s side can write another chapter.

He said: “It’s always 11 v 11. Some might be the favourites and some the underdogs but if you want it more than the others, you are the ones who win it.

“They’re a really, really good team, they are quality players, but it’s not actually won yet.

“It’s been shown before, we beat Sheffield United in the last round so we’ve got a growing belief we could do it again.

“You’ve always got to believe in yourself to do the thing most people think you can’t.”

Duncan Ferguson has been appointed as Inverness manager.

The former Dundee United, Rangers, Newcastle and Everton striker has signed a three-year contract.

The job is Ferguson’s second in management after a brief spell at Forest Green last season. Rovers only won one of the 18 games the former Scotland forward took charge of and were relegated from Sky Bet League One.

The ex-Everton coach succeeds Billy Dodds, who lost his job months after leading Caley Thistle to the Scottish Cup final. Inverness are bottom of the cinch Championship with one point from five games.

Inverness said the appointment came after an “extensive recruitment process which involved some truly excellent candidates”.

A club statement added: “Duncan has worked alongside some of the most respected and outstanding football coaches in the world in recent seasons and we are proud to have him join ICTFC as our new manager.

“His professionalism, commitment and dynamic leadership skills shone through in our discussions, making him the standout candidate.

“Everyone at the club is looking forward to supporting Duncan as the hard work starts now and we hope every Caley Jag will now get right behind him and the team in what we are sure will be a thrilling journey.”