NO SURGERY FOR BLOMQVIST

The 26-year-old winger has had a shocking spell of injuries and surgery was seen as the only way to save his career.

Blomqvist had missed all of last season through injury but was planning to make a comeback at the start of this year's campaign.

He played in a pre-season friendly against Shrewsbury at Gay Meadow but suffered an adverse reaction after the game and has not played since, but despite fears that surgery would be the only course of action, it has now been revealed that it is not necessary.

"We've decided not to go ahead with the surgery because Jesper was feeling a lot better, said Sir Alex Ferguson. "It was improving last week so we didn't bother and we decided to wait to see how things were when the swelling went down.

"He has been progressing a great deal this week and it is looking a lot better for him. He's not back in training yet. Once the swelling goes down completely then he'll be able to return to training.

It's much better news for him. He might even be looking at a game of some sort in a few weeks."

The Swedish international is itching to get back in action at Old Trafford as the last time he played first team football was the European Cup final in Barcelona.