By Ben Kearney

Copyright falkirkherald

Falkirk manager John McGlynn has hinted that striker Barney Stewart will be sent out on loan after recently returning to the fold following an early-season injury. The English forward, 21, joined the Bairns from Heriot-Watt University a year ago and made an instant impact during the club’s Scottish Championship title win last term. He managed 16 league appearances, scoring and assisting twice. But his pre-season was ended when he suffered a fractured fifth metatarsal in July days after starting in Falkirk’s 4-2 friendly win away to East Fife. Stewart got minutes for Falkirk XI in a benefit match last Sunday against Lowland League side Tranent – which the Bairns won 7-1 – and McGlynn said that sending the striker out on loan is something he is mulling over. Finn Yeats also got minutes after returning from a similar injury. When asked if planned to loan out Stewart with the domestic lower-league loan window still open, the boss said: “Well if I say that I will now then I’ll have about 25 phone calls by four o’clock, so I’m not going to go down that road! But we’ve brought in Trey (Ogunsuyi), we’ve got Brian Graham, we’ve got Ross MacIver, we’ve got Gary Oliver, so we need someone like Barney, to develop – from where he was at university, came in and played his part in the second half of last season – he needs to be playing football. So we’ll address that. He’s not ready to go right now because he’s only come back for his first day of training but by the end of the month that might be something that we might have to consider.” Falkirk’s early-season injury woes are now easing with captain Coll Donaldson also back in training, and McGlynn hailed the return the centre-back and his team-mates. He added: “Coll’s the captain of the team, he’s had injuries round about the abdominal area over the last couple of years. He’s the club captain, he’s a big noise, he’s a big voice in the changing room, he’s a big character, he’s played in the Premiership, so you want him back. Barney is a guy who had to really hit the ground running, so to speak, because he’s a developer. You’re trying to develop him and that just curtailed his development, the fact that he’s not been able to be training and getting game time. He really needs that now. Finn is, again, a young player who’s come in here, hit the ground running. Because we’ve all moved up a level, getting that injury has kind of stopped him being able to go and fight for a place. Now we’ve brought other players in, again they’re trying to edge their way in.” Goalkeeper Jamie Sneddon is also closing in on a return after a year out. Tom Lang is close too. Swansea City loanee Kyrell Wilson missed out on the St Mirren match but he could return for the home clash with Hibs on Tuesday night.