Sam Allardyce confirmed Jack Collison is set to provide a perfect tonic to West Ham United's injury concerns with a run out for the Development Squad in Monday's game at Norwich City.
The popular homegrown Hammer has not featured for the first team since his stunning contribution in the Play-Offs at the end of last season. Collison scored both goals in the away game of the semi-final as the Hammers overcame Cardiff City 5-0 on aggregate to reach the Wembley final.
He is now set to take his first step back to first-team action with an appearance in Nick Haycock's first outing as Development Squad manager at Norwich City's Colney training ground. Fellow absentees Ricardo Vaz Te and Yossi Benayou are also edging closer to a return but are unlikely to make the 1pm kick-off with the Canaries.
"Collison plays his first game of the season since the play-off final on Monday with the Development Squad," Allardyce confirmed.
"Ricardo Vaz Te is probably another couple of weeks before he's training and that will be 12 weeks he's been out. We hope Yossi Benayoun will be back with us this week as he's being treated at Chelsea at the moment."