It was hoped an operation in Germany three weeks ago had cleared up the problem but the Israeli international struggled with his fitness and Kevin Keegan admitted it was a gamble playing his playmaker at the Reebok on Saturday.

Fears that he would have to miss the six game run in to the end of the season have been quashed with the player back to his best in training.

"Eyal went to see the specialist in London on Monday," explained Kevin Keegan after leading the Wednesday training session at Carrington.

"He trained this morning and I think we are on top of the problem now. Sometimes it is a case of putting the players mind at ease."

"Players love to be a hundred per cent and sadly that doesn't always happen. So we took Eyal back to London and I think what the specialist told him was spot on."

"He has a course of treatment to follow but he pointed out that there is no reason why he shouldn't train and play and I think that has put his mind at ease."

"His training today was better than it has been for several weeks because of that. We need a fit Eyal Berkovic playing."

"I don't care how much ability you have, and Eyal has buckets of it, you still need to be fit to produce it."

"For one reason or another Eyal has not been fully fit over the past four or five weeks and even playing on Saturday was a bit of a gamble as he had not done the base work. But I think we will get the benefit of that this week

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