Right-back Kane Vincent-Young was back in training alongside his team-mates for the first time since pre-season this morning.
The 24-year-old suffered an achilles injury in August having missed most of last season having undergone two groin operations. The £500,000 signing from Colchester’s last first-team appearance, his ninth for the club, was the 3-1 win at Southend in October last year.
Speaking on Friday, manager Paul Lambert said: "He’s doing really well, Kane, I mean really well, and hopefully on Monday we’ll start to see him train with us, which is a great sign because he’s a really good player. He’s not played for a year now, so hopefully on Monday he starts to join in with us.
"He’s not done any sessions like that before, not with us, not with the team. He’ll need a few weeks probably, some games under his belt, we’ll try and arrange things for him, but it’s a huge bonus for us.”
Lambert believes that the Londoner’s return would be a massive boost: "For heaven’s sake yes, because he is athletic, he’s a really good footballer, so if we can get him back that’s a huge bonus for us.”
The Town boss says he anticipates Vincent-Young returning to the first-team line-up before the end of the year: "Tail end of this one probably, maybe [in the] new year.”