DWIGHT Yorke will be given until match day to prove his fitness for Sydney FC's A-League season opener against Central Coast on Sunday.
Yorke returned to team training today after spending the past three weeks recovering from a groin injury.
He has not played for Sydney FC since the club's grand final win in March, and he last played a competitive match - the 2-0 loss against Paraguay while captaining Trinidad and Tobago at the World Cup in Kaiserslautern, Germany - more than two months ago.
Yorke was given an extra three weeks grace in returning to pre-season training following the World Cup, and Sydney coach Terry Butcher had hoped to have his star player available for the final three matches of the pre-season cup.
A training mishap delayed his return, however, with Yorke, 34, also missing an international for Trinidad because of the injury.
The former Manchester United star left today's A-League season launch early to join his Sydney teammates for training at Centennial Park, with Butcher saying he would give the club's captain all the time possible to prove his fitness before Sunday's kick-off.
"I'm not ruling him out just for the fact he hasn't played because Dwight's Dwight, he is a special guy, and we'll see," Butcher said.
"He's desperate to play, he wants to do very well.
"He's missing games, he's missing training, and he doesn't like that, he wants to be a part of everything.
"The problem with Dwight is he does too flipping much ... he has set himself back because he has done so much, but that's Dwight, he's a special guy and a special player and we're very lucky to have him."
Sydney rested five key players from last Saturday's final pre-season match, the 2-0 against Newcastle Jets.
But Butcher was confident the five - David Carney, Alex Brosque, Steve Corica, Clint Bolton and Alvin Ceccoli, who all started Australia's Asian Cup qualifier lastw eek - would be right for Sunday's grand final re-match against the Mariners at Aussie Stadium.