Graham Westley believes Calvin Zola has taken a ‘big step’ forward in his return from injury after the striker had his best training session since joining Stevenage.

The 29-year-old has been hampered by hamstring injuries since his summer move to Boro from Aberdeen and has only made two appearances thus far.

However, Westley, while not building up too much expectation, is hopeful of an imminent return for Zola.

“I’d love to say that he’ll make a contribution at the weekend [against Mansfield], but I’ve said that for the last 10 weeks,” he said at a press conference at Bragbury End this afternoon.

“He’s always been very, very close to fitness but he’s had constant setbacks. We’re managing him and we’re doing everything we can and using out combined knowledge to get him fit and keep him fit.”

He added: “I’ve just watched him put in best training session since he’s been at the club. He actually looked like a centre forward. He looked like a centre forward who didn’t have a care in the world and he looked like a centre forward who was not thinking about his injury. And he scored a goal.

“In terms of steps forward, this morning was a big one. I always loathe to get too excited because when someone has had as many setbacks as Calv you don’t want to build up expectation and hope too much.

“But, he’s looking positive in himself and he had a smile when he came in from training which is something I haven’t seen.”