BESART Berisha is looking forward to returning to a Burnley side challenging for the play-offs after his loan spell at Rosenborg came to an end.

Berisha scored twice on his Rosenborg debut against Molde in August and featured in the UEFA Cup but was not always first choice during his period with Norway’s most prestigious club.

He appeared for Albania in their friendly against Azerbaijan last month but a leg muscle injury ruled him out of Rosenborg’s recent glamour tie against Valencia.

The injury led to his loan spell being cut short last weekend, even though Rosenborg still had one game remaining in their 2008 campaign.

The 23-year-old will now take a break in Berlin, where many of his family live after fleeing from war-torn Kosovo in the early 1990s, before being eligible to feature again for Burnley from January 1.

Berisha is yet to make his Clarets debut after sustaining a cruciate knee ligament injury just weeks after Steve Cotterill brought him from Hamburg to Turf Moor in the summer of 2007.

Owen Coyle replaced Cotterill at the helm during his absence and the Scot felt Berisha needed to go on loan to regain his fitness, while remaining insistent that the playmaker was still part of his plans.

Berisha will return to a club transformed by league and cup success and is relishing the chance to be a part of that.

“I have my family in Berlin, and this is a good time to see them before I get started in Burnley again,” he said.

“Burnley are doing great in the Championship and it will be fun to get back again.”

Despite recent freezing temperatures in East Lancashire, Berisha is likely to be back in warmer climes following his spell in near Arctic conditions in Trondheim on the fjordal west coast of Norway.

He linked up with his former Aalborg boss Erik Hamren at Rosenborg but the form of Didier Konan Ya and ex-Tottenham striker Steffen Iversen restricted his chances.

“It is always a bit sad to leave after familiarising with a new place, a new club and new people. All in all I have enjoyed my stay here,” he said as he departed Norway. “In hindsight, I have thought that the debut might maybe have been slightly too good.

“But, after it went a little downhill for a while, I felt that I have gradually come back and that everything improved for me within the club. I have got good friends here, friends that I will have for a long time. I would have liked to stay here.

“Obviously I wanted to play more, but Konan Ya and Iversen have been a very good duo, and when I see them play that well I understand why I have not played more.”