Reyna's City return

Injury-plagued Claudio Reyna is on course for a long-awaited Manchester City first-team return after being lined up for a second-string outing on Friday.

The 31-year-old United States skipper has been restricted to just seven appearances this term after undergoing groin surgery in November when he broke down in his attempted comeback from the initial injury.

Though Reyna has never produced the form Kevin Keegan felt the midfielder was capable of when he swooped to capture the New Jersey-born player from Sunderland in August 2003, his absence has still been keenly felt by a wafer-thin Blues squad.

And Keegan is optimistic that providing Reyna comes through a reserve-team clash with Middlesbrough, he will be in contention for at least a place on the bench for the televised encounter with Norwich at Carrow Road on February 28.

“Claudio will play for the reserves on Friday and we will assess him after that,” said Keegan.

“If he doesn’t suffer any kind of setback, he will be involved in some capacity against Norwich, although whether that will be in the starting line-up or on the bench remains to be seen. You have to remember he has only played seven times this season.”

While Reyna has been battling to recover, Paul Bosvelt has struck up an impressive central midfield partnership with Joey Barton.

Bosvelt was absent through suspension for the home defeat to Manchester United yesterday though, leaving Steve McManaman to fill the void.

Unsurprisingly given it was his first senior start since November, McManaman was unable to undermine the midfield dominance of Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, the pair Keegan believes were the most effective United players at Eastlands.

The result virtually killed off City’s lingering hopes of landing a UEFA Cup spot next term but with a 13-point cushion over third-bottom Norwich, Keegan’s side are unlikely to find themselves involved in an unwanted relegation scrap for the second season running.

Nevertheless, with £500,000 (€729,000) on offer in prize-money for each Premiership place, Keegan is determined to ensure there is no end-of-season fade-out for his 11th-placed side, currently £62m (€90.4m) in debt.

“We have plenty of time to think about yesterday’s result because it is two weeks before we play again,” said Keegan, whose side have a free weekend looming following their unexpected FA Cup exit at Oldham.

“We have 11 games left and we have to make sure this club does not slip any further down the table,” he said.