Robinho nearing a return

Get ready for the press to scream 'controversy':

"Robi is not far away, he’s probably got about 10 more days and then he can be back in the group,” reported manager Mark Hughes who has spent the weekend reading rumours that he is about to sell the British record signing.

“He’s working every day, we’re trying to get him back as soon as we can but with a bone injury there is a certain length of time to give it the injury."

Given the form of Craig Bellamy (and indeed Martin Petrov) the starting position on the left hand side looks a long way off for Robinho at this stage.

This of course does afford Hughes the luxury of easing Robinho back into the fray rather than being forced to rush him back (which may well have happened at times last season) before he is quite 100%.

A lot of the focus (myself included) in the media and on the blogs has centred around the likelihood of Robinho getting back into side at the expense of Bellamy, but it would be unwise to assume that is the only position he is capable of featuring. The patchy form of Shaun Wright-Phillips could see him move across to the right-hand side of an attacking trio, or even play off Emmanuel Adebayor in a more central looking position.

At the very least, he could be an excellent impact player to come off the bench to potentially change a game.