Notts County manager Neal Ardley is set to welcome Ben Turner back into training and hopes he could be pushing for a return at the end of the month.
The influential centre-back has been out of action since before Christmas having picked up a hamstring problem before injuring his calf.
But the former Cardiff and Mansfield defender is making progress and is due to be put through his paces later this week.
Ardley says Turner is still some weeks away from a full return, but is hoping he will be available to by the end of the month when Notts face Harrogate in the FA Trophy semi-final.
“Ben’s going to be back on the grass with the team on Thursday, but what we’ve decided with him is to take him away from the conventional idea of getting the hard yards into him first,” he said.
“Plodding around the outside of a field doesn’t seem to work for Ben, so we’ll try and get his fitness up through training.
“He’s still a few weeks away but, touch wood, by the time we get to the semi-finals of the Trophy, Ben might have had enough work to be in and around it - but that’s only if everything goes right between now and then.”
Notts moved to sign Alex Lacey to offset the blow of losing Turner, but the former Gillingham and Luton defender is also on the treatment table.
He is set to miss the rearranged game at AFC Fylde tomorrow night due to a problem with his hip flexor.
Goalkeeper Sam Slocombe and defenders Damien McCrory and Zoumana Bakayogo are also out of the National League clash.
Midfielder Regan Booty is also on the sidelines, but Ardley is hoping to have them back in contention soon.
“We had a good meeting with Alex – it’s obviously been a little bit frustrating because we’re not 100 per cent sure on the issue despite having scans,” he said.
“We’ve asked him to join in training and go hard, but every time he’s done it he’s been a bit sore.
“Because of the lack of progress we may look at an anti-inflammatory injection into the area.
“We’re a little bit light in defence so if we can get Alex back it’ll be a massive plus for some of these games we’ve got coming up.
“As far as Damien is concerned, he ran hard on Monday. He’s got another training session on Tuesday and, if he comes through that unscathed, we hope he’ll then be involved in first-team training on Thursday.
“We would then need to assess whether Saturday’s too soon or whether we feel he’s not been missing long enough for that to be a concern.
“It’s a fingers-crossed scenario at the minute.
“Regan’s been doing a lot of running with Damien but, because he’s been out for such a long time, we feel he needs to work on the base levels of his fitness for a little bit longer before he can start joining in with the short, sharp stuff in training.
“Again, maybe with a clear run, he may be in contention for the semi-finals.
“Sam, meanwhile, was going along nicely but he just started getting a little bit of soreness back in there, so we’ve taken a step back.
“But everything’s telling us we’re on the right track with him. The kicking’s going to be the key thing – he can do most things now but, with him being a goalkeeper, it’s vital he can strike balls.
“We could get him to a certain point and then the last bit might become more difficult.”
