Tim Bresnan has enlisted the help of two Olympic heroes as he closes in on a return to Yorkshire colours following his injury lay-off.

Bresnan has missed the start to the new season with a torn lower left calf, suffered when bowling during the champion county fixture against the MCC in Abu Dhabi during late March.

The all-rounder has spent the last two weeks on the road with the Yorkshire squad for their Championship matches against Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire.

And although he has been stepping up his bowling workloads in the nets, Sunday’s game with Surrey at Headingley may be too soon for a first-team return.

The 31-year-old has also spent a lot of time at the Aqua Treadmill facility based at New Rover Cricket Club in Leeds, founded by the Brownlee brothers - medal-winning triathletes Alistair and Jonny.

Andrew Gale said: “They’ve got their own facility up there, and he’s also been on the bike a lot cycling to the ground and back.

“We might see a very fit Tim Bresnan when he does come back.”

Bresnan’s return, potentially for the trip to face Somerset at Taunton, starting a week on Sunday, will be a huge boost to Yorkshire.

They have already lost Ryan Sidebottom to injury, while Matthew Fisher has spent time on the sidelines during the early stages of the campaign.

Jason Gillespie is famous for rotating his stock of bowlers, so an extra body will be welcome after some tough work on flat pitches.

Bresnan watched Yorkshire draw with Notts, a match which saw all results possible going into its final hour on Thursday.

With the champions set 320 off a minimum of 53 overs, they were in a decent position following a second-wicket stand of 116 between Alex Lees and Gary Ballance.

The equation became 110 off the last 12 overs with seven wickets in hand and centurion Lees and big-hitting Jonny Bairstow still at the crease.

Unfortunately, they were two of six wickets to fall in the last 11 overs before narrowly escaping with a draw nine wickets down.

“When Alex and Gary were going well with 27 overs left in the day, we decided that we wanted to take it as deep as we could,” added Gale.

“It’s very different to T20. You can set the field back and bowl a little wider, so we knew it was going to be tough. But we wanted to entertain.

“It was a great game of cricket and a great advert for the county game.

“It seems to be getting harder to win matches.

“We’ve had three tough draws. I thought we had chances to win the game, but two bad sessions cost us. The first and fourth mornings, we weren’t quite on it.

“But if you win the Championship two years in a row, people are going to up their game against you and want to knock you down.”