Bony closes in on Swansea first-team return

Swansea manager Paul Clement says Wilfried Bony is close to reaching full fitness as the striker attempts to spark his career, which has stalled over the past few seasons, back into life.

The Ivory Coast international returned to the Liberty Stadium on transfer deadline day after unsuccessful spells at Manchester City and Stoke.

After coming off the bench in the Swans last two Premier League games, the 28-year-old started the Carabao Cup win at Reading on Tuesday before being taken off with nine minutes to go.

Clement believes the forward, who scored 34 goals in his first spell at Swansea between 2013 and 2015, is now fit enough to start repaying the Welsh club for the £12m fee they shelled out to re-sign him for City.

"I think he's close because he lasted going on 80 minutes there," the Swans boss said after the victory at the Madejski Stadium.

"(He) had a really good chance, very close in the second half when that ball came across the box and he didn't direct it at the net.

"Physically he's in good shape.

"He played in the Under-23 team, he played 60 minutes, he's played 80 now, so I think he's ready, I think he's ready to start a game in the Premier League."

Bony, who could make his first Swans league start of the season against Watford on Saturday, arrived in South Wales on the same day as Bayern Munich loanee Renato Sanches.

The Portugal midfielder is another player looking to kick-start his career after so far not being able to fulfil the promise he showed with his country at Euro 2016. 

The 20-year-old has already started three games for the Swans and his manager, who worked with him as a coach at Bayern Munich, thinks he is steadily improving.

"He's making progress, you can see that," Clement said. "With each performance, I think he's got slightly better.

"There's still a lot of room for improvement, both on the physical side and some of his decision making and I think the two are related; when you're tired you tend to make poorer decisions, when you're fit and stronger you make better decisions.

"I think as the game (at Reading) wore on he started to give the ball away because he was getting tired but I wanted him to stay out there for the 90 (minutes) - it's a good step for him."