Blues boss Kieran McKenna says summer signing Panutche Camara is already fully involved with the Blues even if he isn’t fully up to speed.

Camara, who scored his first goal for the club in Monday’s 3-0 FA Cup victory over Bracknell, joined Town on deadline day in the summer from Plymouth suffering with a groin injury which kept him out of action until he made his debut as a half-time sub in the Papa Johns Trophy tie against Cambridge.

The Bracknell match, in which he came on in the 79th minute, was his second appearance for the Blues.

Quizzed on when he felt the Guinea-Bissau international might be fully involved, McKenna said: “I would consider him fully involved in that, because of numbers, he’s in matchday squads and he needs to be ready to play.

“How far away is he from full fitness and full confidence? I still think a little way, be honest.

“It’s hard to come into a team like this and a club like this and an environment like this when you haven’t had a pre-season and you haven’t played much football since March or April last year.

“I still think he’s a few weeks away from being at his tip-top condition but the situation that we’re in, he needs to be ready to play and he is working hard to be ready to play games off the bench and games from the start.

“He’s fully involved and I think the work behind the scenes is very important at the moment and I don’t think we’ll fully see the best of him quite yet.”

Photo: Steve Waller

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