Brian Laws hopes to have Bravehearts Steven Fletcher and Graham Alexander leading Burnley into battle at Arsenal on Saturday.

Fletcher is nursing a broken bone in his hand which forced him to pull out of Scotland's friendly win over the Czech Republic on Wednesday night.

But Laws is optimistic about having his top scorer available at the Emirates Stadium, while international team-mate Alexander is also penciled in for a welcome return following five games out with a calf injury.

The Burnley boss said: "Fletcher trained with the Scotland squad in the early part of the week and fell and broke a bone in his hand.

"We brought him back immediately so the doctor could have a look at him and we are fairly confident that he should be okay for the weekend.

"A lot of players who have had those kind of injuries have had a plaster cast on, some form of light protection, so let's wait and see and hopefully he will be okay.

"He will certainly be travelling and we will make a late decision on him but I'm fairly confident he should be okay."

Alexander proved his well-being in a run-out with the reserves on Monday night and Laws admits having his midfield general back will be a major boost against the title-chasing Gunners and for the rest of Burnley's battle to beat the drop.

Steven Fletcher should be fit to face the Gunners

"We have missed his vocal support on the pitch and his organisation," said the Clarets' chief.

"He is a player who does the right thing at the right time. We have missed him and it will be good to get him back in the team.

"That's no disrespect to the other players, it's just that he has the knowledge of the game.

"He has a calmness around him and is good at making sure he gets the point across to the players as quickly as possible on the pitch and that's something we are going to need because we need to be organised and we need to have good communication, particularly with the way Arsenal play."

Laws added: "It's not just ball-watching. You've got to know what's behind you and in front of you and if you've got somebody who's communicating well to the other players on the pitch then it's like having eyes in the back of your head.

"He's been invaluable to the team this season and I think we've missed him when he's been out of it."

Chris McCann and Steven Caldwell are not yet ready to return but on-loan striker David Nugent is back in the Clarets' squad after being forced to sit out last Saturday's defeat to parent club Portsmouth.