George Tanner is closing in on a return to action after the club posted a video of the defender involved in a first-team training session.
The right-back, 22, hasn't featured since he was forced off in the 39th minute of the 2-1 home defeat to Queens Park Rangers at the end of December.
Tanner, who has featured 12 times in the Championship for the Robins this season, has been sidelined with a hamstring injury and manager Nigel Pearson initially gave a two-month timeline on his return.
The Robins were hoping to get him back for the beginning of March having earmarked Saturday's game against Birmingham as a potential comeback - but that was ruled out by assistant Curtis Fleming last week.
"For us at the moment we still want to make sure that he's right and to make sure - he knows his body," he said. "There's a gradual build - we want him back and he's training harder than he's ever trained."
Judging by the club's social media upload of the player being put through his paces at the High Performance Centre, it surely won't be long until he's back in action although, given it's the second such hamstring injury he's suffered this season, there will be a desire to be mindful over exactly when he'll return to first-team action.
Tanner has been greatly missed on the right side of the defence, which has been a problem position for Pearson since his injury set-back, as a variety of players have been moved from the natural roles to try and compensate for the lack of an established right-back.
Zak Vyner has struggled to produce a regular run of form and hasn't featured since the 3-1 defeat to Swansea last month when Pearson criticised certain players for individual errors.
Forward Sam Bell was shoehorned into that position for the last two home matches against Middlesbrough and Coventry, left-back Jay Dasilva stepped into the position for the 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest, while midfielder Alex Scott has also been a regular as a right wing-back. Danny Simpson's time at City looks over having not featured in the first-team October.
It was only at the beginning of the season that Tanner was playing League Two football with Carlisle but he hasn't looked out of place making the step up to Championship football.
The club will be wary of rushing him back into action with the latest hamstring injury a recurrence of the one that kept him out of action throughout November.
SIGN UP: For our daily Robins newsletter, bringing you the latest from Ashton Gate
