Tunchev on the mend

Leicester centre back Aleksander Tunchev could be back on the training pitch within a month, according to physio Dave Rennie.

The Bulgarian defender has been sidelined for the best part of a year and a half after suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury against Crystal Palace in January 2009.

Despite initially recovering from that particular issue, Tunchev has since been on the end of several setbacks with both knees.

But club physio Dave Rennie insists that the player’s rehabilitation process is running smoothly.

“He is doing really well,” Rennie said. “He has a long-standing issue with his right knee where he had this cruciate problem and then he had a joint-surface issue that has been rectified.

“However, in his final stages of his rehab from that he hurt his other knee, which required further surgery, so he has had some joint-surface reconstruction surgery on the left side.

“He is getting to the point now where we can start to load him. This is the money end of the rehab process and we see how secure that knee will be in his career. We started his first loading session on Monday and he did very well.

“We are very hopeful that in the next three or four weeks he will get back out on to the pitch and then it is a slow, steady process back to training with the rest of the lads.”

Tunchev briefly returned to first team action around a year ago with three appearances at the back, but quickly suffered further setbacks.

The 29-year-old has endured a torrid time out of action since an excellent debut season for the Foxes in League One.

But signs now appear to be positive for the Bulgarian international, who could find himself fighting for a first team place once again in just a few months time.