ASHLEY Barnes is targeting a return from his knee ligament injury before the end of the season as he admits he is desperate for a Premier League return.

The 26-year-old played 35 times in his first taste of the top flight last season before becoming the fourth Burnley player in 14 months to suffer a cruciate ligament injury, doing the damage on the last day of the season at Aston Villa.

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The former Brighton striker, who scored five Premier League goals for the Clarets, is back kicking a ball and working on the Gawthorpe training pitches, having spent the best part of six months in the gym.

Having sustained anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament damage Barnes was set to be out for most of the season, with Clarets chief Sean Dyche putting returning players through their own pre-season schedule before giving them a first-team return.

But Barnes is setting his sights on tasting Championship action before the end of this campaign, and he hopes he will do so in a promotion winning team.

“My main aim is to try and get back before the end of the season if I can. That’s my target, to push for the end of the season.

“It would be brilliant to play a part, I just need the boys to get promoted before I come back and then the pressure is off.

“I’m getting out on the grass with the physios now and trying to do that as much as possible. I’ve been stuck in that gym for a long time.

“It will be six months at the end of the month and I will go and see the surgeon and see how I’m doing. It’s going really well, it’s one of those things that you can’t really look ahead, you’ve just got to take it week-by-week.”

Barnes took to the Premier League instantly last season, scoring the winning goal in his second start against Hull before netting the winner against Southampton, while he also struck the equaliser in the comeback draw at Manchester City over the Christmas period.

His time in the top tier was marked by controversy as well, with Jose Mourinho accusing him of a ‘criminal tackle’ on Nemanja Matic in the 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, although Barnes escaped action while Matic was sent-off for retaliation.

But despite that Barnes is desperate to be back in the Premier League with Burnley.

“We don’t want to be in this league after having a taste of the Premier League last year, it was amazing,” he said.

“A whole different world, with the media, being on Match of the Day, everything goes up. Looking back everyone wants to be back there, we don’t want to be in this league.

“I didn’t want my time there to end. We look back now and think if this or if that but unfortunately it happened, we didn’t do quite enough to stay in the league.

“You’ve got to go again and hopefully we can get back up this season.

“But everyone knows the Championship is probably the toughest league to get out of.”