Nahki Wells returned to training this week with Bristol City after a recent groin injury kept him out of the team’s last win against Peterborough United. Now the 31-year-old Bermuda forward is hoping to be involved in the match at home to against Sky Bet Championship front-runners Bournemouth today.

Wells experienced a twinge while warming up for the against Millwall match and was forced to sit out that and the Peterborough fixture before the international break. But he is back in training, along with midfielder Han-Noah Massengo and defenders Nathan Baker and Jay Dasilva, who all missed the last game through injury.

Having the players back in training is good news for manager Nigel Pearson as the team get set to play three tough games in seven days. After today against Bournemouth, the last unbeaten team in the division, City will play Nottingham Forest in another home game on Tuesday before travelling to the West Midlands on October 23 to take on West Bromwich Albion, who moved top of the table on goal difference yesterday after a 1-0 defeat of Birmingham City.

The Bournemouth match also signals the return of Pearson to the touchline after a period of isolation while recovering from Covid-19.

“It’s very reassuring to know it doesn’t matter whether somebody like myself or another key member of staff is not available for any one time, the process goes on and that’s fantastic,” Pearson told the club’s official website.

“The staff and players take a lot of credit for that. We’re at a stage now where the team is still being developed, still trying to execute a style of play which reflects our values and our beliefs.”

City are nine points behind West Brom and Bournemouth in the promotion race but only two points away from the play-off places. City have the best away record in the Championship with four victories but have yet to win at home.

“This year, so far, we’ve been consistently better,” Pearson said. “We’ve had good days when we have played very well but results haven’t always gone the way we would have liked.

“And we’ve had occasional lapses where we’ve not quite been at our best, but I don’t think our consistency has been too bad at all. I think we’ve played at a relatively high standard; what we have to get is those finishing touches.

“We need to be a bit more ruthless and need to score more goals at home. What a great one for us to win this weekend.”