Bullen Set For Return To Action

By Nicholas Rigg
September 5 2005

Wednesday club captain Lee Bullen is hoping to feature in the Owls reserve outing with rivals Rotherham United on Tuesday evening. Bullen, who was injured during pre-season training, is stepping up his fitness in a bid to regain his first team place sooner rather than later.

Bullen was injured in pre-season training and looked set for a long spell on the sidelines, but is set to return sooner than expected.

The ex-Dunfermline man signed a new contract with the Owls in the summer, despite rumours that he was set to return to his native Scotland for his swansong. Bullen revealed that the main reason for him staying with the club for a further year was because of the fantastic season he had just completed, both on and off the field. He will remain at the club until next summer.

The achilles problem which put him out of action in early August is said to be heeling, and boss Paul Sturrock said just last week that he hoped Bullen would be available for the trip to Leicester City on Saturday.

The skipper told the official SWFC website: ''Things are going really well at the moment. I've been in full training and doing a lot of running work with the physios to get back my base fitness. The target is to be involved in the Rotherham game in the reserves, after that is the managers decision. I was lucky enough to get the full pre-season in. It was one of the last pre-season games that caused the problem. So I've got the original base of fitness, now it's a case of topping it up again. After that it's a case of match fitness. Hopefully that can start against Rotherham''.

Wednesday have been missing the influential voice of the scot at the back this season, but it won't be easy for the captain to regain his place after a superb defensive showing against QPR in Wednesday's last league game. With the additional signing of Maurice Ross last week, it could be that Bullen is used as a frontman, with the current striker crisis at the club ongoing.