Ryan Brobbel ready to be fit and firing for The New Saints

The 27-year-old made just two appearances in the Welsh top flight before damaging knee ligaments in the September – with the whole season then put on hold in December amid rising coronavirus cases.

However, Saints boss Scott Ruscoe says Brobbel is back in training and will soon be ready to help them try to maintain their three-point advantage over reigning champions Connah’s Quay Nomads at the summit when the action resumes next week.

“We’ve got Ryan Brobbel training and running on the pitch now, and he’s been out for all of the season apart from the first two games,” said Ruscoe. “He had a cartilage meniscus op, he had to have a lot of it trimmed. We thought it was 40 per cent but it was more 60 or 70 – it was worse than we expected, it’s been four or five months. He’ll be like a new signing, I’ve spoke to him and he’s got his targets to come back and make an impact, that’s his drive.”

TNS will travel to third-placed Bala Town in their first match back in action on Saturday, March 6 (5pm), live on TV.

They will then visit Haverfordwest County on March 13, host Cefn Druids on March 16, travel to Flint Town United on March 27 and finally host Caernarfon Town on April 2 before the league is split in two. And Ruscoe has backed all his players to deal with what could be a hectic end to the campaign.

“In this lockdown it’s been stop-start but the focus has been excellent,” added the boss. “To finish the season, get to 32 games, is in our minds, and hopefully cup games as well – though that means we’ll be playing Tuesday-Saturday, Tuesday-Saturday.”

TNS have kept themselves ticking over during the league shutdown by continuing to train regularly and playing several friendlies – most recently against Airbus UK on Tuesday.

“We just did what we felt we needed to do, whether it was tactical or fitness levels, or strength, a mixture of everything,” added Ruscoe. “When we played our friendlies we made it like a normal week, a normal match week.

“We’ve played Liverpool 4-3-3, Burnley 4-4-2, Chester with a back three, all games we’ve looked at different things. It was about getting lads minutes and motivated.

“The players have been first class with their attitude. I’m thinking back to when I was a player, if I’d have been in the same situation, that’s how I’d see it, a bit of a demotivation, you’re thinking ‘argh, training or running again’. But Everything we’ve put on to them, tactical and shape stuff, standing around in the freezing cold, credit to them, they are good professionals, they want to do well.

“They realised that any time we could’ve gone back in, it could’ve been start of February, here we go.

“We’ve been giving ourselves the best chance to go and win the first game because we’ve done our work, our fitness.”