By Martyn Osmond
July 12 2004

Toon boss Sir Bobby Robson this morning explained why Craig Bellamy had not travelled with the squad to Asia. It had been feared that Bellamy would miss the start of the season, but Robson was quick to play down this speculation. "Craig had a little twing in training on Friday, so we sent him for a scan in Leeds and decided it was pointless bringing him all this way." Said Robson

"It is his knee, but it's not linked to any of his previous injuries and he's better off staying at home as a precaution than coming out here with us."

Bellamy may be fit for the Newcastle-Gateshead Cup at the end of July, and if he fails to make that he will be expected to feature at Parkhead when United face Scottish champions Celtic a few days later.

Other absentees were Kieron Dyer, given extra recuperation time after the hugely tiring 10 minutes he played in Portugal (poor little scrap), Jonathan Woodgate, who is only just back in full training after the thigh injury that ended his (and arguably Newcastle's) season last time round and midfielder Hugo Viana, who has remained in Portugal fuelling speculation of a move back to either Spoting Lisbon or Porto, the player having categorically ruled out Benfica a few days ago.

The squad that travelled to Asia in full: Given, Harper, Caig, Bramble, Bernard, Hughes, Elliot, Taylor, O'Brien, Bowyer, Speed, Robert, Ambrose, Milner, McClen, Jenas, Brittain, Guy, Chopra, Ameobi, Shearer

United will play the Thai National side on Wednesday (kick off 12 noon BST) before flying to Hong Kong to face Kitchee, who beat AC Milan recently, on Sunday (kick off 1pm BST).

There is no word of any UK television coverage of the fixtures so far, but they are available to watch on nufc.co.uk sister site Newcastle World, and will probably find their way onto the big screens in a few pubs around Tyneside.