Striker Barnes is an injury doubt

Striker Ashley Barnes is a big doubt for Saturday's curtain-raiser against Swansea City.
Action and stock from Morecambe v Burnley pre-season friendly, at the Globe Arena.
Burnley's Ashley Barnes.  PIC BY ROB LOCK
19-7-2016Action and stock from Morecambe v Burnley pre-season friendly, at the Globe Arena.
Burnley's Ashley Barnes.  PIC BY ROB LOCK
19-7-2016
Action and stock from Morecambe v Burnley pre-season friendly, at the Globe Arena. Burnley's Ashley Barnes. PIC BY ROB LOCK 19-7-2016

Barnes suffered a hamstring injury just over a fortnight ago in the 4-1 friendly win at Bradford City, and has missed the subsequent three warm-up games.

The 26-year-old returned from a cruciate knee ligament injury in April, making eight appearances, including one start at Birmingham City.

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But boss Sean Dyche, who has Lukas Jutkiewicz available again, having also recovered from a cruciate injury, isn’t too concerned about the problem: “It’s nice to see Juke back fully fit having been through a long-term injury.

“Barnesy is not a million miles away, he’s back on the grass but it’s going to be a bit yet. But we’ve had good news from the specialist this week.

“It’s hopefully a straight forward kind of recovery.

“I doubt it for the weekend, but we’ll see how the week goes.”

Stephen Ward has also missed the last two games with a hamstring strain, with Danny Lafferty filling in at Rangers and against Real Sociedad, and Dyche added: “Wardy is getting better, we’re quite hopeful with Wardy.”