Benito Carbone spent part of the weekend doing extra training as he continues to build up his match fitness after only making the substitutes' bench at Bradford City's opening Premiership match at Liverpool on Saturday.
Manager Chris Hutchings said: "I had no intention of starting the match with him. He was always going to be on the bench. "He knows he needs to be physically right and we are giving him every opportunity to do that.
"We knew when we signed him he was a fortnight behind all the other players, but he did some training on Saturday night after the match and when we called the players in yesterday for some light training he did more than the others."
Hutchings brought on Carbone and new striker signing Ashley Ward for the last 16 minutes.
City have no serious injury problems as they prepare to face Chelsea in their first home match of the season tomorrow.
City hope to give a trial to a friend of Carbone's, midfield player or striker Sergio Campolo, who is a free agent after playing for Perugia in the Italian League. They hope to play him in the first reserve match of the season away to Manchester United on Thursday provided they get international clearance.
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