Bristol City have been handed a blow with Christian Ribeiro almost certain to miss the opening game.
Defender building up fitness after back injury
Bristol City have been handed a blow with Christian Ribeiro almost certain to miss the opening game of the season.
The Robins start the season off at home to Millwall on 7th August, but look likely to be without Ribeiro.
The defender is recovering from a back injury sustained when making his Wales senior debut against Croatia in May and is playing catch-up after missing the majority of pre-season.
"I was desperate to play for Wales and at the time it didn't feel too sore, so it wasn't too much of a worry, but unfortunately I've suffered with it for a bit longer than I imagined," Ribeiro told
skysports.com.
"Hopefully, I can get back into training and impress the new manager as quickly as possible, but I know that I will need to be patient because the other lads will get a chance to show what they can do before I've even put a foot onto the training pitch.
"The first game of the season might come a little too early for me, so I will need to build up my match fitness by playing reserve games and prove myself during them, but the quicker I can get back into training, the quicker I can impress the manager and compete for a place in the first team."
Hard
The highly-rated defender, who was linked with a move to Everton last season, has been sidelined for most of the summer, but is now looking forward to getting the chance to impress new manager Steve Coppell.
He added: "It is always hard when you are injured and you can see all the players come back into pre-season training with a spring in their step, so that is quite down-heartening, but now that I have had the chance to do some running I'm feeling more involved as each day goes by.
"All the nerve sensations have gone now and I don't feel any pain when running any more, apart from a bit of stiffness, so I'm just a little unfit because I haven't been able to move for six weeks.
"I'm building up my running time every day though, so it shouldn't be long now until I am back into the swing of things."
