Paul Lambert is hopeful Kane Vincent-Young will be back on the field by the end of the year after revealing the wing-back is set for a return to full training on Monday.

It’s now been more than a year since the former Colchester man played for the Blues, with first a groin issue and then an Achilles problem keeping him sidelined since last October.

He has been missed, given how big an impact he made during a nine-game spell in the team following his £500,000 move, but Lambert is hopeful he will be back on the field in a matter of weeks.

“Hopefully he’s going to train on Monday,” 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 he starts to join in with us on Monday.

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“It will be a full session with us and 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.

“He is athletic and a really good footballer, so if we can get him back that’s a huge bonus for us.”

The news of a return for Vincent-Young is a bright spot on what continues to be a worrying injury list for the Blues, with Lambert confirming James Norwood is set for ‘at least a few weeks’ out with the hamstring injury he suffered against Charlton.

Lambert is hopeful Brett McGavin and Toto Nsiala will both be available after missing the draw at Oxford due to illness and injury respectively, but Andre Dozzell is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season at the Kassam Stadium.

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“He felt the effects of from it,” Lambert said of Nolan. “But he did well. As I said, we had to throw him in because there was nobody else to play. Hopefully that game’s done him alright.

“He had the little strain against Shrewsbury a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully there are no repercussions so he misses any more.

“I thought he did well in the game considering he hadn’t really done anything for the 10 days.”