Bellamy injury boost

Some positive news from Craig Bellamy's recent scan:

Bellamy has been troubled by left knee problems for most of his professional life and had a career-saving operation on his left knee in 2003. In December, he revealed that he fears he has less than two years left in his career.

The new injury, however, is to his right knee and he has been told he has a slight strain to his medial ligaments which keeps him out of tonight's league clash with Bolton.

Mancini said the appointment with a specialist had been precautionary.

"He reported the problem after the game on Saturday and it was important that he was checked out as soon as possible," said the City boss. "If he is OK I would hope he is training again this week and available for Stoke."

Whilst for the most part Bellamy has had a very good season, yet the past few weeks he has been slightly off his game and tonight's game gave us a glimpse of what I think Roberto Mancini's favoured formation will be, operating with a solid, central trio.

This does not bode well for Bellamy's chances of returning to the side, with Adam Johnson impressing on debut and perhaps offering more versatility in that role. Equally - and as pointed out on this post, it could also see frustrating times ahead for the other creative talents in midfield, namely Petrov, Wright-Phillips and Ireland.