Paul McGinley may still be on crutches following his knee surgery last Thursday, but his name today appeared in the draw for the first two rounds of the BMW Championship at Wentworth.

The Ryder Cup star had a piece of floating bone removed after withdrawing during the first round of last week's Nissan Irish Open, and 24 hours later it was stated that he would not return until next week's Wales Open at the earliest and possibly not before the US Open on June 15th-18th.

But McGinley's manager Andrew Chandler said today: "He is keeping his options open for this week. He has not tried the knee yet, but is going to leave it until late Wednesday or even early Thursday."

McGinley, runner-up to Angel Cabrera last year, has pulled out of the eve-of-tournament pro-am, but for the event proper has been paired with Nick Dougherty and Niclas Fasth, two of the players challenging him for a Ryder Cup spot.

It obviously helps his chances that he is not an early starter and does not have to tee off on Thursday until 12.35pm, but those chances of playing still appear to be slim.

Stablemate David Howell, currently top of the European Order of Merit and at sixth in the Ryder Cup standings one place ahead of McGinley, returns to action after deciding not to play in Ireland.

The Swindon golfer had a month off after the Masters because of back trouble and although he managed 11th place on his comeback appearance at the British Masters two weeks ago, he felt the need to rest again.

"My back is better, but not perfect," said Howell today. "It's vastly improved to two weeks ago. I feel like I can stand up there and give it a whack, whereas at The Belfry I was really quite nervous with it still.

"That's good, but obviously I'm not as fit as I would like to be. You want to be 100 per cent at this time of year so it's a bit frustrating, but I'm obviously more positive with it and it's nice to come back feeling like I am getting there.

"It was getting better during the week at The Belfry, but a long way from being right. If it had been the British Open last week I might well have soldiered on, but with this tournament coming up I needed to take the week off and give it a rest.

"That was the right thing. I don't really have any expectations, which is nice. To come through the week healthy would be great, but once you are out there on Thursday you want to do as well as you can.

This week's field boasts Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Adam Scott and Luke Donald from the world's top 10, and the challenge they face is much tougher after Els, a Wentworth resident, was brought in by the club and changed 17 of the 18 holes.

Other star pairings for the first two rounds include Els with Irish Open winner Thomas Bjorn and Miguel Angel Jimenez, and three-time winner Colin Montgomerie with Padraig Harrington and former Open champion Ben Curtis.

Defending champion Cabrera is with Howell and US Open champion Michael Campbell, Goosen and Scott with Paul Casey, Donald with Lee Westwood and Australian Nick O'Hern and Darren Clarke partners Jose Maria Olazabal and Henrik Stenson.

Olazabal, third in the Masters last month, admits he is trying to get rid of some fairly thick rust after taking the last five weeks off.