Colchester United host Bradford City in League Two

COLCHESTER United have received a boost after Owura Edwards and Teddy Bishop both returned to grass-based training this week.

But the U's home clash with Bradford City this weekend might come too soon for the duo to make a welcome return to action.

Colchester have been without Edwards and Bishop since both players picked up hamstring and ankle injuries respectively in Colchester's 4-0 defeat at Walsall, on September 28.

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They have been missed by the U's but it seems as though they are now closing in on a comeback.

Colchester head coach Danny Cowley said: “We’ve had a good training week and we’ve been able to get Owura back on the grass, which has been a real positive.

“Saturday may come too early for Owura but to have him back on the grass is certainly a real positive.

“Teddy was also on the grass today, so that was a real positive.

(Image: MATT WILKINSON)

“He’s an incredibly important player to us.

“We’ve missed his technical ability, the way that he can control games, the personality he plays with; he plays with such a technical bravery, to get on the ball and take the ball and pass the ball.”

Cowley says Colchester will make an 'intelligent call' on whether or not to start striker Samson Tovide, on Saturday.

The talented 20-year-old made a big impact off the bench for the U's at Barrow last weekend and provided the assist for Lyle Taylor's stoppage-time equaliser, after returning from a hip injury.

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Tovide was not used in Colchester's Bristol Street Motors Trophy win over Arsenal under-21s in midweek and boss Cowley admits they will need to give his participation against Bradford careful consideration.

He said: “We had to be disciplined with Samson on Tuesday but they definitely add to our attacking options.

“We’ll have to wait and see how much availability we have for Samson and whether we can use him from the start and whether we finish with him.

(Image: MATT WILKINSON)

“It’s brilliant to have Samson back after about 18 days.

“He first felt it in the Cheltenham game and came off after about half an hour, in that game.

“We anticipated initially that it might be a bit longer than that but Hayden (Clifton) and the medical team have done a great job with managing him through this process and accelerating it.

“It was great to have him back off the bench last Saturday and we had to be disciplined with him on Tuesday night but we have managed to get a full week of training into him, as a consequence of holding back on Tuesday night.

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“So hopefully, he’ll go into the Bradford game in a much better place and we’ll try to make an intelligent call and listen to the medical advice and be aware of all of the data we have, because we know how important he is to us and to the team.”

Colchester will assess the fitness of right-back Rob Hunt, ahead of the Bradford game.

The 29-year-old had to be substituted in the first half of the U's draw at Barrow, after experiencing a calf problem.

(Image: RICHARD BLAXALL)

Cowley added: “With Rob, we’re hopeful he’ll be available for the weekend.

“He’s responded well to treatment.

“It’s very low level and we got to it before it became anything worse so it was just tightness, rather than an actual strain.

“We didn’t get to Barrow until about 8.30pm (on the Friday) having left here at about 10am, so it was a long old journey and whether that played its part, it’s hard to tell."