BURNLEY captain Steven Caldwell has provided a timely boost ahead of tomorrow’s home clash with Birmingham City after declaring himself fully fit following an hour’s run-out for the second string in midweek.

Caldwell’s recovery from a pre-season groin problem has, however, brought relief amid the injury gloom, not least for the central defender himself, who declared: “I’m ready.”

The 29-year-old has yet to make his first appearance for Burnley in the Premier League after suffering a groin strain on his international recall in August, when Scotland lost their World Cup qualifier in Norway just three days before the new season began.

Caldwell and the fit-again Michael Duff were both named on the bench for last Saturday’s game at Tottenham Hotspur, and the captain may have to settle for a place among the seven substitutes again to give him time to improve his match fitness and allow Andre Bikey and Clarke Carlisle to continue their formidable Turf Moor partnership, with only one goal conceded on home soil so far.

But Caldwell said: "I feel totally there, or as close as I'm going to be until I get back in the action.

"Nothing prepares you for Saturday at 3 o'clock really quite like Saturday.

"But obviously I'm desperate to get out there. It's been a long, hard wait and I want to be playing, sooner rather than later for me.

"For some reason I don't feel like I lost so much fitness with the injury. With the type of injury it was I was constantly trying to push it and get out there and the problem was just getting that last 10, 15, 20 per cent out of me to play a game, which was impossible for three or four weeks.

"I was constantly out there and running and moving and doing cardio-vascular work.

"I feel pretty fit.”

The former Sunderland stopper revealed his groin problem had been long-standing, but believes he has made a complete recovery.

“It was something that had been niggling away for months really,” he explained. “I'd probably not felt great since March through the end of the season and the play-off run, but obviously the adrenaline of games like that is so big I'd get there out on the field and play and be alright and training would be quite short.

"I'm just pleased now that it feels the best it's felt in six months and I'm desperate to get back out there and help the lads and do whatever I can to help the tremendous start that we've already had.

"I want in right away, you know what I'm like. I want to be playing on Saturday and I'm hopeful that I am.

"That's up to the manager, that's a headache for him. I'm ready and I'll be training 100 per cent trying to make him see that I'm ready to be in the team.”