SEAN Dyche is hoping to be able to welcome Matty Taylor and Stephen Ward back into the fold over the next two weeks.

Taylor hasn’t featured in a matchday squad for Burnley since suffering an Achilles injury in the 0-0 draw with Manchester United at the end of August.

The 33-year-old has suffered a couple of setbacks along the way, but has twice featured for the development squad recently.

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He also suffered some soreness in his heel, and while Dyche admits they are being careful the former West Ham midfielder is training with the first team on most days.

“Matty Taylor’s still having a few ins and outs with his sore heel,” said the Burnley boss. “He’s training mostly so we’re just being careful with him at the moment, but he will start to come back into the thinking.”

The news is better on Stephen Ward though. The 29-year-old had pins inserted in his ankle after fracturing it at the start of December.

After coming through development squad games unscathed he has been back on the bench for the Clarets recently.

But after suffering discomfort in his ankle he had to undergo a procedure when he met up with the Republic of Ireland squad last week to ease the pain.

He was able to take his place on the bench against Poland, and Dyche revealed he was back training with the Clarets this week.

“He’s good, his ankle is good,” he said. “His foot seems to have settled. He was involved the other night and he trained well on Tuesday.

“We’re happy with that, it was a niggly one. He seems fine. We’re presuming that it’s over now.”