JAMES Beattie's battle to recover from injury is running ahead of schedule.
The Sheffield United striker is a major doubt for next week's Championship opener at Birmingham City after an operation last month on his damaged knee.
Beattie, who scored 22 goals last season after completing a £4m transfer from Everton, is one o
f the most important pieces in manager Kevin Blackwell's promotion jigsaw.
"Beatts is making great progress," said Blackwell, whose side play their final friendly at Huddersfield this lunchtime, said.
"In fact, he's really surprised me. He wants to get involved in absolutely everything and that's great to see.
"We gave him the afternoon off when we went to Scun-thorpe last Saturday and he told me: 'No gaffer, I want to come on the coach with the lads.' Bear in mind he's already been in for a couple of hours that morning doing his rehab.Then he came along to Bury on Tuesday too. I initially thought he might be out for six to seven weeks minimum. Now I think it could be six weeks max. But we'll still be careful."
The lunchtime fixture at The Galpharm Stadium represents the final chance for players to win a place in United's starting line-up at St Andrews.
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