Rakish Bingham is fit and available for Ebbsfleet’s big home game against promotion rivals Oxford City.

Ten-goal striker Bingham has missed the last eight games after suffering an ankle injury in Fleet’s defeat at Dorking in January.

But he’s back in business at a crucial time of the season as Fleet prepare for the visit of Oxford on Saturday.

Fleet sit fifth in National League South, four points behind their weekend opponents, so there’s all to play for.

Manager Dennis Kutrieb will decide tomorrow what part Bingham will play as Fleet, who won 2-0 at Bath City last weekend, bid for a third straight victory.

“Rak’s back from injury, so we have another option,” said Kutrieb.

“He trained last week and this week and he’s definitely available, but we want to be careful with him.

“We don’t just want to let him go when he hasn’t played for a long period, especially with Braintree (away, Tuesday) and St Albans (away, next Saturday) coming up.

“We’ll make a decision what to do on Friday.”

Bingham’s return could be good news for 14-goal leading scorer Dominic Poleon, who struck coming off the bench for the second game running at Bath.

Poleon has featured in every league game this season but has been in and out of the starting XI.

Kutrieb, however, likes the Poleon-Bingham partnership.

“They are a very good pair together,” said the manager.

“Maybe we can make some adjustments in the next games but it’s always good if you can pick and choose who you want to play and that’s what we’ll do.

“To be honest, I think every player moans when they don’t start. There are very few players who don’t moan if they don’t start so from this point of view, Dominic is like everyone else.

“As long as they moan in the right way and have the right reaction and the right attitude, I’m happy with that.

“I would be more confused if they didn’t moan when they don’t play. It’s a good thing and that’s how it should be.

“Dominic understands the situation, he’s not stupid, and he knows he can come on and affect a game in the second half when the opposition are getting tired.”

Kutrieb, a title winner in Germany, loves the business end of the season and can’t wait to get at Oxford.

He’s ready to play now and has called on his side to show the battling qualities that took care of Bath, where Ben Chapman opened the scoring with an early goal, and stay mentally strong.

“We need to make sure we win on Saturday and go from there because we’ve got a big week coming up and it’s a crucial time of the season now,” said Kutrieb.

“I’m happy we’ve had two wins but at the moment Saturday is the most important game.

“I really enjoy this time of the season and I love it in general when you get to squeaky bum time.

“I can’t wait for the games, that what I was like as a player.

“I said to the boys when I saw them on Tuesday it’s still four days to the game but from my point of view we can start now.

“That’s how I feel about it because it’s a big game and that’s what we love. We need to make sure we’re mentally prepared.

“Physically, we’re definitely prepared. We’re a fit side, we can run for 90 minutes, we can fight, we know our patterns.

“We just need to make sure we are mentally prepared to chase the opposition all over the pitch for 90 minutes, like we did at Bath.

"I think the team performance was very good there - the work rate was outstanding.

“That was the most pleasing thing for me to see and it’s a part of the game you need to deliver, not just the nice beautiful things."