Sheppey United winger Danny Leonard is expected to be back in action imminently.

Boss Ernie Batten may be able to name him in the squad for the weekend trip to Lancing.

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Leonard, who has played 12 games this season, hasn’t featured since the FA Cup defeat to Walsall in early November and his return would be a big boost to The Ites.

Batten said: “We are hoping he will train this Thursday with a view to possibly being in the squad on Saturday. That would be a massive bonus.

“He has been out a long time and hopefully when he comes back he will be fine, and he won’t break down with that injury, but I will probably do what I did with Dan Bradshaw and nurse him back minutes at a time until we get him up to speed, but what a player to have back.”

Key striker Bradshaw has just returned from injury, making a trio of substitute appearances before starting against East Grinstead on Saturday and doing what he does best.

Bradshaw nabbed a couple of goals with trademark poacher finishes in a 3-0 win and got another in a 6-0 victory at Littlehampton on Tuesday.

Batten said: “You can’t teach anybody that, it is just knowing where to be as a striker, it is one of those things.

“We didn’t want to bring him back too early, he has been available for the last few games and we have been using him very sparingly, but we started him and he looked okay considering he hasn’t played a lot and hasn’t trained a lot, I thought he looked quite sharp.

“We brought him off as a precaution because he hasn’t played 90 minutes for a while, we don’t want to keep throwing him in Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday.

“If we can get him through the next few games, get a lot of minutes into his legs, he will be good to go for the rest of the season.”

Leonard’s return will give Batten the chance to go for more width in the team but with midfielder James Taylor on board, it’s given them the chance to play a different way.

Batten, who has been able to switch to a 4-3-3 formation, said: “Adding James to the midfield gives us another string to our bow. Our preferred option is the play the two wide men but it shows we can adapt, which is something we haven’t been able to do before.”