Abo Eisa's Bradford City return has lifted whole squad, says captain Richie Smallwood

The forward is pushing for only his second start in 18 months as a Bantam at Sutton United on Saturday, although with so little football behind him and the team on the back of a big victory, it may have to wait a bit longer.

He did, though, play 21 minutes in the FA Cup against Harrogate followed by 35 at Mansfield Town.

Eisa was out for four months last season with hamstring surgery on top of an unrelated hamstring tear shortly after joining from Scunthorpe United. He returned in pre-season, only to pick up another problem.

"It's really good," said Smallwood of his team-mate's return. "He's been really unfortunate of late.

"I wasn't here last season but he was injured a lot then too. A couple of the lads have been with him before and said he had a few injury problems at other clubs as well.

"I saw in pre-season what a good player he was and it's just nice to finally have him back.

"Hopefully he keeps getting more minutes to show what he can do.

"Everyone's had an injury and knows how hard it is coming in and doing the same thing every day – treatment, gym. Finally when you get outside running you might have a recurrence and we know how hard it is mentally not being able to help your team-mates on the pitch.

"We've just got to compliment his character for coming back and making an impact."

With central defender Matty Platt suspended and left-back Matty Foulds suffering an ankle problem, manager Mark Hughes will have to reshuffle his defence but that department is high on confidence because of the reassuring performances of goalkeeper Harry Lewis, on loan from Southampton.

"He's had an exceptional season, and he's a top keeper," said Hughes.

"All that was missing was he hadn't been playing at Southampton or been loaned out for a while. Signing him was only a risk up to a point, as he'd been training with Premier League players regularly.

"To have a keeper of Harry's level is reassuring for our defenders, because while they've done well this season too, they know he's usually there to save them if the opposition get through."