Colchester forward is preparing for
Manchester United and the biggest night of his career by waiting for a 42lb carp
It is an overcast day in late November, and Colchester United have given their players a day off. A few minutes’ drive from their training ground, by the side of a small private lake accessible only, given recent rain, by navigating across a few hundred metres of thick sludge, Luke Norris is putting up a tent. This will be the striker’s home until the next morning, when he will pack up and head straight to training. Inside the tent is a simple camp bed and some basic provisions, protected from the rats that frequent the water’s edge; inside the lake is a 42lb carp, and Norris hopes to catch it sometime in the following 22 hours .
Whenever it happens, the enormous fish will be out of the water only for as long as it takes to secure a commemorative photograph. The only giant-killing Norris is interested in is of the footballing kind, with his team already having knocked Crystal Palace and
Tottenham out of the Carabao Cup and heading to Old Trafford on Wednesday in the quarter-finals. “There’s one fish I’m after and I think if I get that fish I’ll move on, I’ll go to the next lake,” he says. “I think that’s normally what guys do – they’ll see a fish, either in the magazines or on social media, and they’ll think: ‘I want that one.’ It’s the biggest one in the lake, and most of the time guys do want the biggest fish in the lake. I’ve had bigger over in
France but in the
UK that is a good fish.”