Foster, Delcroix and long-term absentees: Burnley injury update ahead of Sheffield Wednesday test

The striker returned to Gawthorpe early after being forced to withdraw from the South African squad after picking up a knee injury during last Friday’s 5-0 African Cup of Nations qualifying win against Congo.

While the full extent of Foster’s setback is not yet known, head coach Scott Parker doesn’t expect him to be available for Saturday’s trip to Hillsborough.

“We don’t know the full extent at the moment,” he said.

“He came back, we got him back early. He came back into the country yesterday and he’s got an appointment this afternoon to really get a clear idea of it.

“I wouldn’t want to go into too much detail or comment too much, we will wait and see what the experts say and hopefully by the back end of the week or early next week the picture will be a little bit clearer in terms of understanding it.”

When asked if Foster is definitely out of this weekend’s game, Parker added: “I think it’s fair to say we rule him out of this weekend.”

Elsewhere, the Clarets remain without a number of players through long-term injuries, with Jordan Beyer, Hjalmar Ekdal, Hannes Delcroix, Joe Worrall, Aaron Ramsey, Manuel Benson and Nathan Redmond all sidelined.

Mike Tresor is also working his way back to full fitness after spending a long time out through injury.

Of Burnley’s longer-term absentees, Hannes Delcroix appears to be the closest to making his return.

“Delcroix has come back now, he’s on the grass with us,” Parker added.

“Obviously it’s still early stages but that’s a big positive that he’s on the grass. He’s been back on the grass for the past two or three days.

“The other boys, in terms of the longer term injuries, are just picking up their work. It’s been another 10 days where they’ve managed to do some good work, so all of those boys are moving in the right direction.

“As always, we have some long term injuries, that’s very clear, but there are other boys who are pushing in the right direction and hopefully over the next few weeks we start to see their return.”