East Kilbride boss Stevie Aitken expects to welcome back Chris Erskine from injury for Tuesday night's Premier Sports Cup clash at Greenock Morton.
The former Partick Thistle and Dundee United attacker had surgery on a hamstring injury in April and was expected to miss the start of the season.
But the 34-year-old has worked hard on his rehab and is back ahead of schedule, with Aitken keen to give him some minutes at Cappielow.
Aitken said: "Chris Erskine will probably make the bench on Tuesday and we'll get him some game time.
"But we'll be cute with the time he gets.
"A big shout out to Partick for their help in getting him back [they facilitated the surgery] and to Chris because he's trained himself to get where he is and he is ahead of schedule.
"It's going to be like a new player coming in when he comes back.
"We saw last season what he can do for us and it's exciting to get him back in the team."
Kilby face the Championship side off the back of a 2-0 defeat to tier two team Kilmarnock at K-Park yesterday.
However, Ton have been rocked by a Covid outbreak which forced them to forfeit their clash with Stranraer on Saturday and Aitken added: "We are not sure what team Morton will play because of the Covid situation there.
"But we'll rest up and the guys will go again.
"We want to try and do well in the group, so we'll need to try and get some points."
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