Alex Pattison and Jake Young's fitness boost for Bantams

And Graham Alexander is confident that Jake Young won’t be too far behind him.

The Bantams boss has hardly seen anything of either player so far after injuries wrecked their recent campaign.

But he expects to see both lining up in the ranks when the players return to start training again at the end of next month.

Alexander said: “Patto is 100 per cent ready to go back into full training.

“He trained with us towards the end of the season, not every single day but periodically in different spells.

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“But you could see he was pretty much up to full speed by the time we got to the end.

“We will expect him to join in fully from day one as soon as we get back for pre-season.

“Jake is still in the rehab stage of his return to training and playing. He’s still got work to do over the summer on that side of it.

“He’s still reporting into the club and being put through his paces to be brought up to a level where we know he can join in with us for the first week of preseason.

“He’s a little bit behind Patto but that’s exactly where we expected them to be.

“But I would be hopeful that they would both train when we return.”

It will be a double boost for Alexander given the lengthy absence of two players who could potentially have made a difference to City’s ninth-placed finish.

Pattison came bursting out the blocks after joining from Harrogate last summer with three goals in the first month.

But injuries dogged to his progress to such an extent that he played just 58 minutes for Alexander in three sub appearances before suffering a season-ending recurrence at Doncaster in December.

“It was really frustrating,” admitted Alexander.

“Alex’s injury coincided with Jamie Walker coming out the team as well for three months.

“That was a blow because Patto had been training quite regularly with us and we’d had little 20-minute cameos from him. We were just counting down the days until he would break into the team.

“Then when Jamie got injured, we thought it was the perfect opportunity for him.

“He came on at Doncaster and played the last 20 minutes and, unfortunately, we lost them both.

“We saw his games at the start of the season and we’d seen what he was like in training.

“There was a lot to like about Patto so we couldn’t believe it when we found out he was out for the rest of the season.”

Alex Pattison scored three goals in the opening month (Image: Tom Pearson)

Alexander brought back Young from his 16-goal loan spell at Swindon in the mid-season window. But the striker was carrying a knock as City fought off bids to sign him.

He was on the pitch for a total of 153 minutes in four appearances before a hamstring injury suffered in the home win over MK Dons required surgery.

Alexander said: “We were really patient with Jake in January, nursing him back to fitness after returning from Swindon injured.

“He started one game for us and then broke down unfortunately.

“That was a big frustration because a lot of our work around January was based on Jake Young returning. We didn’t need to go out and recruit another striker.

“Obviously, we knew we were bringing in Calum Kavanagh but then losing Jake was just another blow for us – and not even to have the hope that he was going to return before the end of the season.

“But that’s done now. We’ve been patient and took our time with them and hopefully they’ll come back better than when they got injured.

“I always see that as a target for any injured player. Use that time when you’re not playing and turn it into a positive by coming back stronger than when you left.”