Oxford United have been boosted ahead of Saturday’s game at Fleetwood with Sam Long returning to full training.

The defender has missed the last few games with a thigh injury but stepped up his return this week and could be available for Saturday’s game at Fleetwood.

With Jordan Thorniley making his return from injury last week against Northampton, United will have defensive options despite Ciaron Brown being a doubt after limping off with an ankle injury during Northern Ireland’s game against Slovenia at the weekend. Ciaron missed his country’s subsequent game against Kazakhstan in Astana on Sunday.

Meanwhile there was more good news for the U’s with young midfielder Josh Johnson back in full training for the first time since the summer.

The highly-rated 18-year-old missed much of pre-season after suffering a quad injury in the first week back but has worked hard to regain fitness and has been back on the training pitches this week.

“It has been frustrating” he told oufc.co.uk. “I came back ready to try and impress in pre-season but have had to be patient and make sure everything is right. I feel good now though and will just keep working hard and hopefully get an opportunity to show what I can do.”