LUCA Colville is eyeing a return to first team action in time for Morton’s crunch game against Partick Thistle on Saturday.

The midfielder missed the last two games against Ayr and Dundee after sustaining a knock in the 2-1 victory over Inverness last month.

He hopes that he can make an impact at Firhill after returning to training on Friday as the Ton look to pull themselves away from Thistle, who occupy tenth position in the Ladbrokes Championship.

He told the Tele: “I took a knock to my knee in the game against Inverness. 

“I’d cut inside to try and hit a shot and hit my knee and it caused a bit of pain when I was running about in training.

“It’s fine now. It was just a knock — nothing serious — but I couldn’t play on the Tuesday against Ayr and I only really came back in on Friday morning to train, so it was a bit of a late fitness call for me to play at the weekend.

“I’ll hopefully be back in line to come in on Saturday against Partick.

“It’s a big game to come back for — a six-pointer.

“Obviously Partick will be wanting to prove a point with us beating them in the fashion we did last time and the fact that they are struggling in the league.

“They’ll be just as hungry as us to win. It is a massive game for us because we don’t want to get dragged further back towards them, but I’m sure that we can get ourselves back on track and get a result.”

The Englishman insists that he is up to the task facing him on his return as he hopes to fire the Ton back up the table.

Colville is adamant that challenges like this along with the relationship between himself and David Hopkin is what brought him to Cappielow in the first place.

He added: “Games like this is why I wanted to come here.

“The gaffer has brought me here because he trusts me and because I trust him, so I’m really hoping to be back in contention on Saturday and get the job done for the team.

“I’ve been really enjoying it since I’ve arrived. 

“Taking the knock was annoying because I thought I was starting to play quite well, so having a set back was a bit annoying.

“Hopefully I can kick on during the week in training and pick up where I left off.”