Martin Canning believes his Hamilton Accies squad is the strongest he has had at the club and it is about to be strengthened by the return of Ali Crawford.

The winger is on the verge of returning to the full fitness after being sidelined at the end of September.

Crawford was involved in a freak training ground clash with Darian MacKinnon when he tweaked the inside of his knee.

He has missed the last nine weeks of action but is set to feature for the Hamilton youths on Tuesday.

Canning hopes he will be available for selection within the next ten days.

"He will play a bit of the under-20s game tonight," he told STV. "Hopefully he will come through that and we can get him back involved for Saturday.

"If not it should definitely be the following week. He's been out about nine weeks now and this will be his first 45, maybe 60 minutes of football.

"I'm expecting him to come through it fine and if he does he will kick on with the first team again."

The manager says it will a huge boost to what is already a strong squad.

Canning joined Hamilton as a player in 2008 and he does not feel any previous group of players compare to what he has at his disposal now.

"It's the strongest squad we've had at Hamilton Accies since I've been here," he said.

"When you look at the bench on Saturday, there are five or six guys sitting there who are all arguably ready to play and should be playing.

"It's a good squad, and you also have Steven Boyd and Botti Biabi that aren't even in the squad."