YORKSHIRE have been handed a major boost with the return to fitness of Ryan Sidebottom and Jack Brooks ahead of tomorrow’s key Specsavers County Championship match against Warwickshire at Headingley.

Sidebottom has been central to a frustrating summer of injuries for the back-to-back county champions, who can now see light at the end of the tunnel in that regard.

The 38-year-old seamer has been out of action since late April, when he suffered an incomplete fracture of his fibula while playing football.

He suffered the injury during the first day of the Division One draw against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. With it undiagnosed, he then exacerbated it while bowling later in the game.

Sidebottom has missed the last seven Championship matches, while new-ball partner Brooks has missed two of the last three following a torn quad muscle.

The 32-year-old suffered the initial injury during the draw against Lancashire at Headingley in late May before returning to action in the defeat against Middlesex at Scarborough at the start of last month.

He missed the most recent draw against Surrey at The Oval as a precaution, having felt some discomfort during the latter stages of the Middlesex match.

“They’ll both be fit and available for selection,” confirmed coach Jason Gillespie.

“Matthew Fisher won’t be available just yet, but I think there’s going to be an opportunity to rest a couple of players, which will be very good.

“We want to keep everyone fit and firing and nice and fresh.

“We’ve had a heck of a time with injuries this season, but we look like we’ll have as close to a full complement of a squad to pick from. We’re all good.”

Fisher has not played a first-team match all season, having been dogged with hamstring troubles since the club’s pre-season tour of the UAE in March.

The plan is for the 18-year-old seamer to play league cricket this weekend and then second XI cricket next week.

Yorkshire will go into what is their tenth match sixth in Division One with 116 points, 25 adrift of leaders Middlesex.

They have a game in hand on them, Somerset, Lancashire and third-placed Warwickshire, who are all above them.

Durham are second on 128, having also played nine.

After Warwickshire, Yorkshire then travel to Emirates Old Trafford to face fourth-placed Lancashire, starting a week on Saturday.

Yorkshire have played some impressive limited-overs cricket since their last Championship match against Surrey, with Gillespie keen to see it boost their red-ball form.

“We hope it will have an effect because we’ve been playing some very good cricket in both formats of one-day cricket of late,” he added.

“But I think we’ve also been playing some decent cricket in the Championship.

“Middlesex at Scarborough, we had a bad game – certainly bad periods in that game. After that, we played some good cricket at Surrey in a heavily rain-affected fixture.

“I’m very confident with the Championship match against Warwickshire.

“Hopefully we can go and play positively, as we usually do, and be nice and ruthless with our disciplines.”