Mark Trueman holds Bradford City door open for Bryce Hosanah return as other injuries ease at Valley Parade

But there was better news on the injury front, with three players who missed the win over Colchester United in with a chance of returning for the Good Friday game at home to Forest Green Rovers.

The 21-year-old right back joined in October on a season-long loan but after 11 appearances his campaign was cut shot in early November by a hamstring injury, not the first of his career.

This week the Bantams accepted defeat in their attempts to get him back on the field in 2020-21, and Hosanah has returned to Thorp Arch after surgery.

As Trueman and Conor Sellars only took over in mid-December, it meant they never had the chance to work with the youngster, but they have not ruled it out completely, and are open to the idea of bringing him back to Valley Parade next season.

“We're disappointed we never got the chance to work with Bryce but the best thing for Bryce and his future is that he gets himself 100 per cent right,” said Trueman, who was at the club as a youth coach before taking the first-team job.

“It's all gone well and he'll be carrying out his rehab with Leeds.

“We want to bring the best players possible to the club, if that's loans and signings in the summer window, we will. If Bryce is available, there's always potential he could return. He knows how the club works he knows me and Conor now but he's not had the opportunity to work with us.

“We saw a lot of Bryce before we got in the role and we were excited to work with him. We know the attributes he's got and what he could have brought to the team, something different to the players we've got who can play right-back.

“We're disappointed and Bryce is disappointed. I spoke to him to thank him for his efforts before he picked up his injury.”

Charles Vernam, Ollie Crankshaw and Billy Clarke have all been back in training this week, although with another game on Monday, at Stevenage, it may be that some or all are held back to freshen the squad for that game.

“They've both been training in the last couple of days,” said Trueman of the first two. “We said they were close to returning for Colchester but they just missed out, so we're hopeful they'll both be ready for Friday.

“It's similar with Billy, he's trained with us and he's in contention as well.”

Vice-captain Lee Novak is also making good progress having been out since December with a knee injury.

“It's great to see him out on the grass doing his rehab,” said Trueman. “He's not with the group yet, he's still with the physios, but his progression is probably ahead of where we thought so that's positive news but we're not in a position to put a timescale on it. We're hopeful he'll return before the end of the season, that's our goal.

“If he keeps progressing the way he is, we'll get him back even earlier.”

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