Quique Sanchez Flores has told Watford fans Troy Deeney is not a superhero ahead of his potential return against Burnley this afternoon.

The head coach has called for patience and claimed it will take time for the club captain to return to his best following his lengthy lay-off with a knee problem that required surgery back in August.

Sanchez Flores is undoubtedly pleased to once again have the striker at his disposal, but said he needs to ease him back in slowly. 

"It's not that simple and Troy needs minutes," he said.

"He needs time to recuperate what he can give us. We will try to find the space for Deeney to recuperate on the pitch, not just in the training ground, in all the competitions.

"It's interesting for us to find this space for him. He's not the superhero, there shouldn't be things like this because football is really complicated and it's better to introduce Deeney in the dynamic of the group by helping him to come back.

"He's fit, but it's been three months after the surgery, so it's not easy. Little by little, he's improving. He looks much better right now, the attitude is really positive and he can look much better than he is in that moment. But we need to be clever or to analyse well what is the situation with him and try to use him in the important part of the match."

Choosing as and when to utilise Deeney is something that Sanchez Flores has thought long and hard about, as he tries to gain maximum impact at this early stage of his skipper's return.

He also said he wanted to find out the reasons why so many of his players were going off injured in the first-half of matches in order to keep his side healthy and competitive. 

"I would like to have Deeney on the pitch for the most important part of the match," he said.

"I'm not sure it will be in the first half or the second half, I need to think well about everything. This is necessary.

"We are not happy with the situation that has happened in the first-half we are always losing some players, so we need to learn about these kind of things."