ALMOST a year after breaking his leg, Marc Tierney has finally been given a boost with the news he could return by Christmas.

Wanderers’ forgotten man has been in the wilderness since breaking his leg against Yeovil last September.

He aborted a comeback attempt at the end of last season because of complications in his recovery, which then forced him into another operation in the summer.

But the 29-year-old, signed on a free transfer from Norwich City, is now making progress and aiming at a return to action by the end of this year.

Dougie Freedman admits he will have to be careful with the defender after such a long spell out of the game.

“He had an operation in the summer and he is geared up to be back hopefully some time this year, maybe Christmas,” he said. “The problem isn’t going to be the leg; the problem is he is going to have missed 18 months of football because from my experience it takes you six months to get going again.

“He seems to feel a lot better this time. He had a limp last time because of the scar tissue but there is no limp or scar tissue this time.

“So that will be November, December, January to get going again.”

Freedman praised Tierney for working hard to keep himself in shape despite not being able to compete on the pitch.

“He is a very strong character,” the Whites boss said. “He is in every day working away in the gym so his body is still in a very good shape. That will certainly help him.”

Freedman failed to find a specialist replacement for the left-back through most of last season, plugging the gap with Tim Ream and Alex Baptiste.

He signed Dean Moxey from Crystal Palace this summer but has only been able to play him once, in a less-than-memorable debut against Watford on the opening day, because of a foot injury.

“It was a huge blow what happened to Marc at the time, but we had to get on with it,” Freedman said. “It was a dent in the team, so we’ll be hoping we don’t have too much more to cope with this season.

“We have it covered with Dean and hopefully Marc will be back with us this side of Christmas and we’ll be fairly strong in that position then.”