CLARETS full-back Lee Briscoe has been given the all-clear to return to training to keep alive his outside chances of a first appearance in the big East Lancashire derby.

Briscoe missed Blackburn's 2-0 win at Turf Moor in December with a gashed knee and since then has twice been troubled with hamstring trouble.

His latest injury blow struck at Sheffield Wednesday a fortnight ago when he limped off with a fresh hamstring strain.

But the club believes the problem may be more back-related and after extensive checks this week Briscoe was set to re-join Stan Ternent's first-team squad again today. The boss confirmed: "The specialist just wants him to crack on. He can't find a great deal at the moment but we'll just have to wait and see.

"Lee was training with the physio pretty strongly yesterday so I'm hopeful that he'll train with us today and I'll know later if he's going to be available or not."

Ternent will therefore delay his choice on the left-hand side of Burnley's defence for Sunday's high-noon showdown with promotion-chasing Rovers at Ewood Park.

And the manager also has a central defensive poser to weigh up as he must decide whether to recall the pacey Ian Cox following his mid-week World Cup exploits with Trinidad and Tobago.

Coxy played in the early hours of yesterday morning and then faced a trans-Atlantic flight from Costa Rica via Miami.

"There's the flying and the different time zones and everything so it's a rather difficult one for him. But he's a fit lad.

"I won't expect him in training until Saturday so I'll have to have a look and see how he is," Ternent added.

Burnley will put the finishing touches to their preparations in training tomorrow as they bid to upset Rovers' promotion charge by handing Graeme Souness's men, who are third in the table, only their third home defeat of the season.

"We're looking forward to it. We've everything to gain and nothing to lose. We start the game as underdogs," said Ternent.

"Blackburn are an extremely good side and we will have it all on but we will give it our best shot.

"Graeme's team, although it's not for me to talk about other sides, will be promoted in my view.

"He's done extremely well with them, he's got very, very good players and with an even break over the rest of the season they will definitely, in my view, get an automatic promotion.

"But Sunday is another day. Our players will be playing for pride and they will want to beat Blackburn as much as Blackburn want to beat us."