MARGATE boss Chris Kinnear is nursing a broken left shoulder, just days before the club are due to start pre-season training.

Kinnear was hurt after falling down the stairs at his home near Brands Hatch on Saturday morning, and will be in plaster for at least three weeks.

He said: “I was in a rush to get out of the house, missed the step, and went head first down the stairs.”

Kinnear was treated at Darenth Valley Hospital, and has been signed off from his job as a special needs teacher at Stepney Green School in East London for the rest of term.

Margate’s squad are due back from their summer break this weekend, ahead of the new Conference South season, but the club’s future is still shrouded in speculation.

Kinnear said: “ We still don’t really know what is happening. I have been sitting and waiting to get the go-ahead. Nobody is 100 per cent sure, but once we know we can tell the players what is going on.

“I am sure the new ground will go ahead, but we all want it to be sooner rather than later. It’s a case of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, but we have been saying that for quite a while now."

Meanwhile Kinnear fully expects to be working with his long time assistant manager Kevin Raine again this season.

Raine has been linked recently with the vacant position at Dover, the club where he and Kinnear both worked with great success in the early 90’s.

The club have arranged five pre-season friendlies, all away from home, in the build up to the new season.

They are July 13 Folkestone(7.45), August 1 Tonbridge (3pm), August 5 Erith and Belvedere (7.45) and August 7 Ashford (3pm).