The City favourite has been named in Fabio Capello’s squad for the forthcoming 2010 World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Kazakhstan alongside team-mate Wayne Bridge, but his inclusion looked doubtful late last week after Mark Hughes had announced he was likely to need surgery.
So it was a major surprise to see his name on the team sheet for Sunday’s game against Bolton Wanderers, with his club manager as pleased as anyone that he could pick him.
Hughes said: “When I did the press conference on Friday, Shaun was seeing the surgeon in London and at the time the view of the medical staff was that he would need an operation.
“But he came back from the consultation really positive and was happy to give it a go. The surgeon had said he needed to know if the knee could stand up to a game, I wanted to find out if he would be fit with just rest over the summer rather having to have an operation.
“If he gets a reaction the decision might be to have an operation, but if he has come through OK then he is an option for England.”
Missing from Sunday’s squad was Elano, and of the mercurial Brazilian Hughes added: “He was injured on Friday - he went over on his ankle and got tackled at the same time. There was fluid on the back of the Achilles and he was not fit, and he asked me if he could go back to Brazil a day early with his family, which I gave permission to do.”
