Dover Athletic manager Jake Leberl close to welcoming back talisman Ruben Soares-Junior after groin injury

Dover talisman Ruben Soares-Junior is closing in on a return following a groin injury.

Soares-Junior scored 22 goals as Whites won promotion last season and the forward has been missed during his spell on the sidelines.

He’s on the way back but manager Jake Leberl, whose side host Ebbsfleet at Crabble tonight, will tread carefully.

“It’s a shame we lost Ruben earlier in the season,” said Leberl.

“He’s been a talisman for us last year and a big character, so he’s a loss, and we’ve missed a few other boys.

“But there’s no excuses, they’re back, so we’ve got to get them up to match fitness, let the shackles off and start having a right go at teams.

“We don’t want to rush Ruben. He came back a little bit early before and picked up the injury again.

“Groins are difficult ones, so we want to make sure he comes back this time ready to go and hopefully push on in the second half of the season.

“He’s been brilliant for us and a huge reason why we got promoted, so to lose him so early, for the amount of games we have, is obviously going to disrupt us but it’s a squad game and even without him, we didn’t lose in November.”

Dover go into the Ebbsfleet game on a run of three defeats in all competitions.

After going down 4-1 to Hornchurch in the FA Trophy, they’ve suffered back-to-back National League South losses, beaten 5-2 by Eastbourne and 1-0 at Maidstone on Boxing Day.

They’d won four successive league games before the Eastbourne defeat and Leberl wants Whites, who sit 15th, to start enjoying themselves again.

“Personally, I just want to get back to that no-fear factor,” he said.

“Maybe we got a bit carried away. We didn’t lose in November and maybe we were looking a little bit too high up.

“You’ve got to take one game at a time