VADAINE Oliver could be back in the City squad to face Hartlepool this weekend.

But Matt Derbyshire and Thierry Nevers are both still likely to miss out.

Mark Hughes reported mixed news on his injured attackers as the Bantams prepare for their critical home double-header.

Oliver has not featured for the last five games because of a knee injury.

He trained fully with the squad for the first time back today and Hughes is hopeful of having the big man available for Saturday.

The City boss said: “As long as he doesn’t get a reaction to the work today, then he should be okay.

“He’s been doing a lot of work with the physios just to make sure his knee’s settled down, which it has done.

“He’s been unfortunate because of the weather and obviously we’ve been away travelling.

“He hasn’t had that much time on the grass. In fact, he’s only had two or three sessions in the last few weeks.

“We’ll see if we can get him back for an option at the weekend, if not then certainly Tuesday.”

Derbyshire and Nevers, though, are expected to be another week out of contention because of “niggling issues” holding up their recovery.

“With these injuries, sometimes it’s the last two or three percent that takes the time,” added Hughes.

“You can improve very rapidly and get encouraged by that and then it’s the last few percentage points that don’t allow you to come back to full fitness and it drags on.

“We’re in that situation a little bit.

“Both boys have shown a good rate of improvement and had a couple of training sessions. There’s just that little niggling issue that is not resolving itself at the moment.

“It’s frustrating but that’s the nature of those injuries.

“It might not be this weekend and maybe they miss out on Tuesday as well. But we’ll get a week’s work into them and hopefully they’ll be available for the following weekend.”

Hughes has not been able to name a forward on the bench in recent games as back-up for Andy Cook and current strike partner Dara Costelloe.

“We’ve lost Abo (Eisa) and Derbs - and Thierry can play up there as well. It has limited my options, which wasn’t the case earlier in the season.

“That’s the benefit of having a deep squad that we’ve still got the talent.”

Midfielder Emmanuel Osadebe is also expected to be out for another couple of weeks.