Oxford United boss Gary Rowett is hoping Leicester City will be able to give Ben Nelson some pitch-time to prepare him for the Championship’s relegation run-in but admitted his situation is “little more complicated”.

Centre-back Nelson is currently in rehab at City after suffering a quad injury in November. The 20-year-old underwent surgery and is now in the gym at Seagrave alongside the likes of Ricardo Pereira and Abdul Fatawu.

But he’s still registered to Oxford and their manager Rowett is keen to have him back when they can. Sitting 17th and nine points clear of the drop zone, Oxford are well-placed to avoid an immediate return to League One, but Rowett still wants Nelson back to help them over the line.

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That means getting game-time with City’s Under-21s. The issue is that there are limited fixtures in March when Nelson is due to be back, with no Premier League 2 game between March 14 and April 7.

Estimating when Nelson might be back, he said that the young defender was around three-to-four weeks behind City academy graduate and Oxford captain Elliott Moore, who has just returned to training and is a fortnight away from playing. That puts a return for Nelson at the end of March.

There are still seven Championship matches remaining from April onwards, and Oxford have some big tests in the final few weeks against the likes of Sheffield United, Leeds and Sunderland. That could allow Nelson to add to his eight appearances for the club so far this season.

Rowett told the Witney Gazette: “Ben is a little bit further behind, so when he gets to that end stage of the rehab, we’ll try to find a balance with Leicester. As much as he’ll need some games, which I’m sure he’ll hopefully be able to get there, at the same time, we’d like to try and get some involvement here and back into it with us.

“That one might be a little bit more complicated to find a solution. But he’s probably a good three or four weeks behind Elliott on that one.”

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