Boss Roy Keane says he will treat Argentinian midfielder Luciano Civelli like any other member of the squad when he returns for pre-season training at the end of June. The 23-year-old has been out of action since March 2009 with a serious knee ligament injury.
Keane says that Civelli, who is currently back home in Argentina, won’t be treated with kid gloves when he returns: "The plan is that Luca will join in with us in pre-season on June 28th. He’ll join in with the rest of the group, there won’t be any cotton wool wrapped around the boy.
"I’ve spoken to [fitness coach] Antonio Gomez and the medical staff have been in touch with people who are looking after him in Argentina and he’s coming on leaps and bounds.
"Coming back for pre-season and playing top Championship football, 46 matches, that’s the big question mark. But we’re quite happy and he’s coming back pre-season and he’ll be here on the 28th like all the other players.”
The Blues boss says the pre-season period will be crucial for the £1.1 million signing from Banfield: "Making progress in the gym and out running is all well and good but on top of that football is about holding people off, twisting and turning and we won’t know about that until pre-season. It’s a big pre-season for a lot of players, but particularly Luca.
"The boy’s not played football for 18 months, so don’t think I’m just going to be depending on Luca stepping straight back into the first team.”
Keane admits that the left side, both midfield and full-back, has been a problem and that he has "one or two” targets in mind and was due to speak to a manager regarding a potential signing at the end of last week.
Civelli made eight appearances for the Blues after joining the club in January 2009, suffering his injury in the home game against Burnley two months later.