PAUL STURROCK will welcome back the vast majority of his Saints squad on Monday for pre-season training.

The end-of-season injury nightmare when 12 of the first-team were out of action has now eased, with Michael Svensson the only player currently still sidelined.

The big Swede missed Sweden's Euro 2004 campaign with a knee injury which was operated on at the beginning of June.

He will definitely miss the early part of pre-season, although Saints are hopeful that he will be back in action for the start of the season against Aston Villa on August 14.

Svensson will still report back on Monday, when Saints will give him a full examination.

Physio Jim Joyce said: "Michael has been undergoing rehabilitation back in Sweden and seems to be doing ok.

"But we need to have a look at him before we can judge how soon he might be back.

"The initial estimate was for him to be back running around six weeks after the operation which would take us to the middle of next month.

"It may be that he will be able to come with us to our training camp in Austria and continue his rehab out there but we will know more once we have had a look at him.

"We will then be able to get more of an idea of when he might be able to resume full training or start playing again."

There is good news, though, for Matthew Oakley and Jason Dodd.

Oakley is now fully recovered from the cruciate knee ligament injury which he suffered way back in September last year against Middlesbrough.

His return to action will be taken slowly, although he should be able to do ballwork next week and will then probably be fed into games for short spells.

It is hoped that he will also be available for the start of the season.

Jason Dodd's knee has recovered well, despite the horrific tackle by Henri Camara at Wolves in March, which originally looked bad enough to threaten his career.

The other less serious injuries have also healed with Rory Delap, Graeme Le Saux, Danny Higginbotham, Paul Smith, Neil McCann and Kevin Phillips all recovered.

Missing on Monday will be Antti Niemi, Claus Lundekvam, Chris Baird and Yoann Folly who all have extra time off after playing international games since the end of the season.

Marian Pahars and Anders Svensson, who were involved in Euro 2004 with Latvia and Sweden respectively, will also be allowed a holiday but will report back in time for the pre-season tour of Sweden.