Bruma nears reds return

BROKEN-hand victim Marc-iano Bruma could be back for Barnsley within days.

The 23-year-old Dutch right-back, who has yet to make his debut since signing in the summer from Rotterdam, will have a final X-ray tomorrow.

"It should be all right,it's just a final check," said manager Simon Davey.

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"He's been training with us, it's not as if we have to work on his fitness once he has the all-clear. But he will need a game in the reserves."

Barnsley reserves play at Hartlepool tomorrow afternoon and if Bruma comes through that he could be in contention for the weekend or, more likely, the game at Stoke City a week tonight.

Bruma's hand was broken in a training-ground accident.

Davey expects to have a fully fit Istvan Ferenczi for Saturday when Scunthorpe visit Oakwell.

The Hungarian striker was back training yesterday after taking eight days' complete rest to treat an ankle injury.

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Lewin Nyatanga's whirlwind schedule will include just one training session with Barnsley ahead of Saturday's match.

The 19-year-old will play his second Welsh international in five days tomorrow in Slovakia and fly home on Thursday.

Barnsley will have Paul Reid standing by if fatigue or injury rule the defender out of Saturday's Championship game.

Reid is fresh from a three-week lay-off after being sent off at Colchester.

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Barnsley midfielder Grant McCann is hoping to be involved in Northern Ireland's Euro qualifier in Iceland tomorrow.

He was not included in the squad which lost to Latvia on Saturday but coach Nigel Worthington has hinted at changes to his line-up.

Barnsley goalkeeper Nick Colgan is expected to understudy for Shay Given tomorrow for the Republic of Ireland against the Czech Republic on Prague.

n Sheffield Wednesday will use part of the money received from the sales of Madjid Bougherra and Chris Brunt to partially offset the club's 20-million-plus debt.

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The club is set to announce a net annual profit of 1.5m, their best results for a decade, while the intention is for some of the income from their recent multi-million-pound player sales to be utilised to help reduce the overall debt.

Meanwhile, a player they recently paid money for, 700,000 striker Francis Jeffers, looks set to make his Wednesday comeback tonight after injury.

The 1.5m net profit, revealed from unaudited preliminary indications, is for the last full financial year.

If confirmed once the official audit is complete, then it would represent Wednesday’s best financial return since 1995.

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The 2.5m sale of Madjid Bougherra to Charlton in January was a huge boost for Wednesday’s finances.

The 3m move of Chris Brunt last month is not factored into the figures for the last financial year but some of that is set to contribute towards the overall debt reduction.

The preliminary report welcomes the fact that the profit marks a “forward movement” in the club’s financial performance.

As part of this process, the directors’ intentions are that 2m will specifically designated from “player trading” for debt reduction.

The fully audited accounts are expected to be released in the next few weeks.

Jeffers looks set to play some part in the Owls’ reserves game at Grimsby tonight.

n Owls: P38