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Better news for Scholes

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson hopes that Paul Scholes will be ready to return to action by mid-August after the midfielder had a successful operation on his troublesome knee injury.

The former England international was forced to fly home from the club's tour of Asia on Monday to have the surgery and there were fears he would be sidelined for at least a month.

But a relieved Ferguson told the club's official website: "Paul's exploratory operation was 100 per cent good news.

"There was just some bruising on the cartilage. He'll be back in three weeks. He's had his pre-season and a few games, so I won't worry about that."

However, Owen Hargreaves misses Friday's game against Guangzhou Pharmaceuticals after failing to overcome tendonitis in his knee.

Ferguson said of the former Bayern Munich's star: "Hargreaves won't be playing at all on the tour.

"It's just tendonitis. It's becoming an irritant rather than a big problem.

"It's something we're going to have to do something about - not an operation, but we may have to give him an injection at some time."