DOUGIE Freedman has revealed how Wanderers had to go back to the drawing board in order to solve Matt Mills’ long-standing hamstring problem.

The former Leicester City centre-half has not featured for the first team since limping out of the 2-2 draw against Huddersfield Town in December, and had originally been pencilled-in for a New- Year return.

But after his first setback, the Whites’ medical team discovered underlying issues that required correction – extending his spell on the sidelines by another eight weeks.

Freedman is happy to report that Mills is now nearing full fitness and could soon be back in his thoughts.

“What we feel with Matt is that he needs to change his whole attitude to training,” the manager said.

“He’s doing things he’s never done before, in the gym and in his pattern movements.

“At the moment he’s feeling a little bit stiff and not moving as well as he could be.

“But he is still training away, and looking good in fact, and he’s played in the reserves. So he’s just waiting for his chance now.”

Freedman has praised his medical staff for diagnosing the problem, which means that the 26-year-old can now feature in the end-of-season run-in.

The key, reckons the manager, was in the detail – and he is hoping the same thorough approach can see Keith Andrews and Adam Bogdan back in action ahead of schedule too.

“When he was injured he wasn’t responding to some of the normal guys’ training,” he said. “A hamstring that should have taken three to six weeks to heal was taking eight to 10 weeks for him. And we couldn’t quite work that out.

“We figured out that his movement patterns were not quite what they should be. He needed to have quicker feet, and so on, so he has been away to work on that.

“He has found a bit of muscular soreness because of that, which has kept him out, but in the last few weeks he’s trained well and he’s raring to go. He’s just waiting for an opportunity.”