CAMERON Carter-Vickers is edging closer to a return to fitness as his wait to make a Cherries debut continues.

The centre-back is yet to feature for his new club since arriving on loan from Tottenham Hotspur in October.

Carter-Vickers, 23, was on the brink of making a matchday squad before rolling an ankle in training towards the end of November.

Ligament damage proved worse than initially feared for the USA international, who is finally set to return to training with the team this week ahead of Saturday's FA Cup trip to League Two side Oldham Athletic.

Asked for an update on the centre-back, boss Jason Tindall told the Daily Echo: "He’s progressing well. Similar to Jack Stacey, he’s out on the training pitches now, doing work.

"It’s been a real frustrating time for Cam because when he came in, he needed to do work to get up to speed with certain things that he needed to develop and understand.

"He was doing well at the time and unfortunately picked up the ankle injury that set him back. It’s been a real frustrating time but I’m sure he’s really looking forward to getting back and being back involved again."

Carter-Vickers arrived at Vitality Stadium with plenty of Championship experience under his belt.

Having come through the youth ranks at Tottenham, the defender has spent numerous loan spells away from the north London club, featuring regularly in the second tier for Sheffield United, Ipswich Town, Swansea City and Stoke City before linking up with Luton Town a year ago.

There he played 16 times, initially under Graeme Jones, who is now a first-team coach at Cherries.

The defender has not played a competitive match since featuring for the Hatters in July, although he did play during pre-season for Spurs.

Asked if Carter-Vickers had returned to parent club Tottenham during his injury lay-off, Tindall said: "He wanted to stay with us. He stayed with us throughout the course of his rehab.

"He’s someone that’s put a lot of hours into getting himself back to fitness, worked extremely hard in the gym with the guys and on the training pitch.

"He’s someone that’s progressing really well."

As well as Stacey (knee) and Carter-Vickers, Cherries are currently without Chris Mepham (calf) and Arnaut Danjuma (hamstring) due to injury, while Philip Billing (groin) also missed Saturday's win at Stoke.