Bradford City's Andy Cook warned his recovery from injury is not over just yet
Two decisive goals in Tuesday’s Football League Trophy felt like the end of Andy Cook's injury nightmare but his Bradford City manager has warned him he will still have to tread carefully for some time yet.
The centre-forward suffered a serious knee injury on New Year's Day, but made a spectacular comeback with two goals as a substitute at home to Grimsby Town.
Graham Alexander, though, has talked down the 34-year-old's chances of featuring at Doncaster Rovers in League One on Saturday.
He is determined to be careful with the striker, and five goals already this season for Will Swan makes that easier.
"It's not as straightforward as you'd expect," said Alexander when asked if Cook could feature at the weekend after his starring role in the 2-1 group-stage win.
"The 20 minutes he had last night, or 23 minutes or so, was instead of a training game behind the scenes. It's been impossible for us to create 11-11s in training or bounce games because we just haven't had the time.
"When I spoke to Bobby (Scarborough, Bradford's head of medical) about him being included on Tuesday, the asterisk was that that doesn't mean he's definitely available for Saturday. That's from Bobby.
"We have to understand and just assess where Cook is. I'll be surprised if he gets rid of all the soreness and stiffness by the time the weekend comes, but I've got an open mind.
"We just have to make sure that we don't just think everything's rosy now, let's crack on.
"It'd be a waste of time of us all being so disciplined – especially Cookie – for eight months just to lose our patience at the end and do something wrong.
"(On Wednesday he was) very happy but very stiff. He said he hadn't felt like this for a long time – feeling sore the day after a game."
It has been confirmed Bradford’s League Cup third-round tie at Newcastle United has been set for September 24 and the boyhood Magpies fan will be desperate to play.
"We spoke to Cookie because it's important we manage his expectations," explained Alexander. "We don't want him getting too down or despondent if he's not involved in a couple of games.
"He understands the process he's been through is not quite over yet but I think he feels good around his knee. It's just his general body, as for any player who's missed eight months of football."
Bradford are also assessing centre-back Tom McIntyre, who joined on loan from Portsmouth on Monday's deadline day. The 26-year-old provides much-needed cover with Neill Byrne and Matt Pennington injured, but has had little pre-season football.
"In the next two weeks there are no midweek games so we can get some proper training down to assess him, speak to him, see how he feels about it,” said Alexander.
On Byrne's recovery from a knee injury, Alexander said: “He took part in a little bit of training on Wednesday with Matt Pennington but not with the full group.
“It will be good to have them both back but I think it will be after the weekend before they are training fully.”