SCUNTHORPE United manager Ian Baraclough could soon find himself having an array of centre-backs to choose from.

David Mirfin is steadily edging back into contention from a thigh problem, while both Rob Jones and Niall Canavan have returned to training this week.

The former has been sidelined for more than a month with sciatica, and Canavan has not featured since the start of November, having been suffering from tendonitis.

"Rob's trained yesterday," said Baraclough.

"He did more gym-based work last week; now he's been allowed to go into the training environment again and was part of yesterday's session.

"Niall has also taken part in the session, having improved his amount of work from last week.

"He's getting closer, which puts more competition on the centre-half places.

"I've got five centre-halves now who are probably going to be frustrated if they're out the team. They are the nice problems I'm finding now."

Other long-term absentees Garry Thompson (groin) and Michael O'Connor (knee) are also 'not too far away', according to Baraclough.

"I'm not saying they're ready to go straight back in, but to have them there on the training ground would give everyone a boost," he said.