WAYNE Thomas has handed Burnley a massive fitness boost ahead of this weekend's Championship clash away to Ipswich Town.

The defender, only just back from a knee cruciate injury that was expected to rule him out until next summer, recently went under the knife for the second time this season to remove a piece of troublesome cartilage.

The setback ruled him out of last weekend's Turf Moor victory over Plymouth Argyle at Turf Moor.

But Thomas came through a 90 minute run out with the reserve team last night unscathed to prove his fitness ahead of the trip to Portman Road, which sees captain and fellow centre back Frank Sinclair start a two-game suspension.

Thomas will be now hoping to slot straight into the heart of a defence that has kept back-to-back clean sheets in the Championship for the first time since late September.

Ironically, the first of those shut-outs earlier in the campaign came at Turf Moor in the 3-0 thrashing of Saturday's opponents - a game credited with kick-starting the season for Steve Cotterill's side.

And Michael Duff is hoping similar fortune will shine when Burnley make the long journey to Suffolk this weekend.

The former Cheltenham defender, 27, said: "I have been out of the team for a few games recently, but since I've come back in we've picked up a couple of clean sheets and good results.

"I remember when we played Ipswich earlier this season and something clicked that night and we got on that good run.

"Portman Road is a tough place to go, they're a big club they've had some good results recently.

"But we will be going there to win the game and hopefully build on the two clean sheets we've got.

"We know if they win, they go above us in the league, but we also know that if we win we can go up the table again because we've closed that little gap."