Paul McGinley may still be on crutches following his knee surgery last Thursday, but his name appeared yesterday 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 Irish Open at Caton House, 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 yesterday: "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 tomorrow until 12.35pm, but the 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 the Irish Open. The Swindon golfer had a month off after the US 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 just to be 100 per cent sure.

"My back's better, but not perfect," said Howell yesterday. "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".