"Jimmy is on the verge of joining in with contact training with the younger players rather than the actual reserves," Sanchez told the club's official website.
"This will be on a week-by-week basis, he needs three or four weeks before he perhaps comes into contact with the first-team players.
"His recovery has gone very well, but he hasn't had someone crunch into him yet. That is now the next stage for him.
"Every time there is a crunch tackle with Jimmy, people will look and see how he is with it. Once he's had a few of those and gets up from them, people will say 'Let's get on with it'."