Harry Pell is expected to play in the U23s match against Watford on Friday afternoon
The U's midfielder has been out of action since the first day of the season through injury, having missed a big chunk of the second half of the 2018/19 campaign.
An extensive rehabilitation process is now coming to an end, and he will step into competitive match action against Premier League side Watford at St Albans City FC on Friday.
At Thursday's pre-match press conference ahead of the weekend game against Newport County, U's Head Coach John McGreal said of Pell:
"He's been really working hard to be fit, and has trained with the first team group all this week.
"The next step is obviously playing minutes in the U23s mtch on Friday and getting through that unscathed.
"He has been out for a long time so there won't be any rush with him, he has had little set-backs and reoccurances so we will continue to be really careful with him."