OWEN Coyle insists he won’t rush back Charlie Mulgrew even though the midfielder finally made his return from injury on Tuesday night.

The former Celtic star replaced Ben Marshall with 19 minutes remaining against Nottingham Forest - his first action since lasting just over half an hour on debut at QPR last month.

Mulgrew should be in the squad again for today’s trip to Bristol City, but his manager is prepared to be patient with the 30-year-old summer signing and not risk a further setback.

Coyle said: “We’ve got Charlie fit and he’s training really well, but he’s not got games under his belt.

“We are trying to slowly introduce him and get him game time, but also know that he’s a player you want in there because he makes a difference to the team.

“He came on the other night and got some valuable minutes under his belt. Looking to Bristol City, we’ll look to do the same again and get him involved at a certain time.

“The challenge now is because you play Saturday-Tuesday, you can’t get that reserve team game in because they are on first team duty.

“In an ideal world you might have Charlie go and play (for the Under-23s) at Brighton for 90 minutes on Monday, but then you don’t have him available for Tuesday and we knew, even for 15 or 20 minutes, he can bring that experience, that calmness and that composure.

“It’s the old chicken and the egg, trying to find the right way forward.

“What we need from Charlie is that when he comes into the team we need a sustained period from him, not one or two games.

“So I think that’s why you look at the long-term picture.

“If you throw him in and he’s out for six to eight weeks, it’s been for nothing.

“You just have to be smart about how you go about getting Charlie to that level where he’s ready to play week in, week out.”