Striker Barnes is an injury doubt
Striker Ashley Barnes is a big doubt for Saturday's curtain-raiser against Swansea City.
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.
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.”