Stoke City have confirmed that Bojan Krkic will travel on their pre-season tour to Singapore as he continues his recovery from injury.
The former Barcelona playmaker made a bright start to his career at the Britannia Stadium before suffering a cruciate ligament injury during a January FA Cup match, ruling him out for the remainder of last season.
He returned to pre-season training with the Potters earlier this week and will now accompany the squad to Asia, although he will not feature in any of the club's Barclays Asia Trophy matches.
"We didn't really expect to see him on the first day, we thought it might be a week or 10 days but he's come in with a smile on his face and he's looking a million dollars," assistant manager Mark Bowen told the Stoke Sentinel.
"You just have this thing at the back of your mind that you have to keep a lid on him because the expectations from us all - fans, media, staff, players - we can't wait for him to come back.
"We still have to protect him - and from himself at times, because he'd want to pull his boots and the red and white stripes on next Wednesday against Everton if he could. You've just got to make sure that when he does come back, he's back for good. At this stage we have to be very careful of non-contact, even if people are accidentally bumping into him, but he's getting there."
Stoke will, however, be without left-back Erik Pieters for the friendly competition, which also includes Everton, Arsenal and a Singapore Select XI.
Barney Corkhill
