Burnley boss Vincent Kompany confirms defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis is ready for a run out

The England Under 21 skipper had started every minute of the Clarets' first 26 league games of the campaign prior to his setback.

The Manchester City defender limped off with a foot injury in the 27th minute of his side's 4-2 win away at AFC Bournemouth in the FA Cup.

Harwood-Bellis hasn't been since being replaced by Luke McNally at the Vitality Stadium, missing 10 games in the Championship and three in the FA Cup.

He could feature in this afternoon's fixture against Barnsley at Oakwell and again when they take on runaway Group North leaders Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in a week's time.

“Yeah I think we might have some surprises and some little gifts coming back, so hopefully," said boss Vincent Kompany.

“It’s pretty simple, I can say Taylor Harwood-Bellis is going to play a couple of games now with the under-21s. It’s been a long time out of the squad so we want his fitness levels to go back up and whether it’s Benny, Jay Rod, all the other guys, they’re getting close now.

“As well on top of that, I think we’ve been a little bit more fortunate than we thought with the injury of Browney so hopefully after this week, after the international week, we’ll have a full squad. That will be great.”

The Championship leaders take on Hull City at the MKM Stadium on Wednesday evening as they look to take another step towards promotion.

The Tigers are 15th in the second tier and are unbeaten in their last seven home games under Liam Rosenior.

However, despite turning a corner since the new manager's arrival, Kompany is confident of getting a result in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

“I’ve seen bits from Hull," he said. "I was planning on spending the entire day doing the analysis of them. All I’ve seen of them is organised, playing some good football.

“It’s a team that has not been shown on Sky as much as other teams so I haven’t seen as many games yet, but you can tell by the results that they have turned a corner a little bit.

“But the ambition does not change for us. We want to go there and try and get a result and win the game.”