"Fabio will be like a new signing for us," said Lee.
"He wasn't available for pre-season, but he's coming back and hopefully we'll have him chomping at the bit and competing for a place very shortly.
"Any team likes to have all of their players available. That brings its own problems of course because you have to pick a team from them, but we would prefer to have that problem than a situation where players are out injured
"Rafa has said on many occasions he is confident with the squad we have and we feel we can mount a challenge on all fronts."