SEAN Dyche is refusing to put pressure on winger Ross Wallace for a return, but admits the Scot will be like a new January signing when he is passed fit.

Wallace, right, started the season but was ruled out for around at least three months after undergoing knee surgery to repair wear and tear damage in August.

Since then Burnley have mounted a charge to the top of the Championship table.

Dyche, who remains on the hunt for fresh faces ahead of tomorrow’s emergency loan deadline, is looking forward to a time when Wallace can rejoin the group and play his part.

But the Clarets boss is reluctant to put a timescale on the 28-year-old’s comeback, although he admits he is not expecting to have the former Sunderland, Celtic and Preston wide man available until the turn of the year.

“It’s just a longer term situation,” said Dyche.

“It will not necessarily be longer than January but it will be longer than December.

“We’re just looking forward to getting him back in the right manner.

“We can’t rush it, it’s one of those injuries that needs a bit of care and attention, from him and from us.

“He’s on the right pathway but that’s going to be a while still yet.

“We certainly don’t want to timeline it. It’s an open timeline to allow him the chance to be back properly, that’s the main thing, to get it right properly.

“I spoke last year about injuries and you want them back once, not twice. You want them back the first time when they’re right and they’re ready and they stay fit.

“That’s the key to it. It’s not always as easy as that but you understand the principle.”

But Dyche was pleased that their overall efforts to encourage injury prevention were paying off, with Wallace so far the only long-term casualty.

“If you are working with limitations on your numbers then of course that’s a bonus,” said the Burnley boss.

“I do value the work that our sports science people and physios do. We have worked quite a lot on that and I think the players have been very open and accepting of it.

“We explained when I first came here ‘it’s designed for you, if we increase you capacity to play and the output that you can give us then that will increase you and the team’ and they’ve bought into that.

“We do a lot of injury prevention strategies, as they call it. I call it just keeping them right, and the work they do is important in order to keep as many players on the grass as possible.”