BLACKBURN Rovers defender Ryan Nelsen is planning to be back in action at some point early next month.

The New Zealand international, who this week signed a new four year deal with the club, hasn't kicked a ball in anger during Rovers' pre-season campaign because of a niggling injury.

But, thankfully for manager Mark Hughes, the 28-year-old can now finally see a light at the end of the tunnel and he has pencilled in next month's game at Sheffield United as the date for a possible comeback.

Nelsen initially thought he had damaged a hamstring after feeling pain at the top of his leg when he returned to training at the start of pre-season.

However, a series of scans and assessments failed to pinpoint the problem so, at one point, the Kiwi even ended up seeing German specialist Dr Hans Muller-Wolfhart during the club's trip to Bavaria.

Now, Rovers' medical staff appear to have made a diagnosis and Nelsen is hopeful he should be fit to resume playing in the next couple of weeks.

"I think I've broken the back of it now," said the All Whites skipper.

"I feel strong now and hopefully I'm not that far away. It wasn't my hamstring in the end. I had a tendon tear in my backside, which I ended up playing on with last season and that flared up again.

"It just kept niggling at me but finally they just said rest it' and now it feels great again."

Having missed the whole of pre-season, Nelsen will spend the next few weeks working on his match fitness, which rules him out of today's game at Portsmouth, and the next two home games against Everton and Chelsea.

Nelsen is gutted' to be missing the start of the season, and in particular the meeting with Chelsea, having missed the corresponding fixture at the end of last season due to a hairline fracture.

"I'm gutted. In a perfect world, if I had to play a season then I'd play Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool every week of the year.

"Those are the games you live to play in and it's a shame I'll be missing that one."