By Russell Smith OXFORD United midfielder Paul Tait has been given the all-clear following an exploratory operation on his knee.

An arthroscopic op showed the 28-year-old former Birmingham City player had suffered no lasting damage.

Now Tait, who has been out of action since the FA Cup second-round replay against Shrewsbury two weeks ago, is expected to return to training next week.

Les Taylor, United's assistant first-team coach, said: "It takes two weeks before you can get back into training.

"We will give him time to recover from the scope which showed up very clean."

Taylor added that Tait had an outside chance of being available for the Christmas clash against Cambridge United at the Manor Ground on Sunday, December 26.

But he felt it was more likely he wouldn't come back into the squad until the trip to Burnley on Tuesday, December 28 or the home game against Wigan on Monday, January 3. United had a further boost with centre back Steve Davis, who has also been sidelined since the FA Cup replay win over Shrewsbury with a minor thigh strain, back in training and available for Saturday's Division 2 trip to Bournemouth.

"He joined in on Tuesday and came through with no problems," said Taylor.

Meanwhile, Kevin Francis's long haul back to match fitness is being hit by a lack of games.

The giant striker, who is on the road to recovery following a serious knee injury, will have to wait until next month before getting another much-needed run-out after next Tuesday's Reserves match against QPR Res at Loftus Road was postponed with both clubs having FA Cup replays that night.

Taylor said: "He needs a lot of games and they are few and far between at the moment. With the reserves' game at QPR cancelled we are looking at January before he has another game.

"He needs another two or three games before we think of putting him in the first-team squad." Francis's next chance of action looks to be the Combination clash at Wycombe Wanderers which has been put back 24 hours to Wednesday, January 12 (2pm) due to the Auto Windscreens Shield clash between the two clubs on January 11.

Story date: Thursday 16 December

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