Celtic assistant manager Johan Mjallby has played down fears that captain Scott Brown will miss the start of the season with an ankle injury.

The midfielder, who has had two ankle operations in the past 18 months, suffered pain in the same area during Celtic’s 2-1 victory over Sporting Braga on Wednesday, which failed to stop them bowing out of the Champions League. But Mjallby does not believe he will miss the SPL opener at Inverness on August 14.

“I wouldn’t think so,” he said. “I can’t say for certain whether it’s going to be a concern but right now I think he’s going to be okay for the start of the season.”

The Swede added: “He felt a bit sore after the game. He’s had problems with his ankle in the past.

“But he had a great game against Braga. If he says he’s fine to play that’s good enough for me.”

Brown will report for international duty on Monday but may not make the trip to Sweden for Scotland’s friendly in Stockholm.

“He needs to meet up with the Scotland squad and then they’ll make a decision,” said Mjallby.

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy has quelled rumours that he is currently looking to sign Michael Mancienne from Chelsea on a permanent basis – for the moment.

McCarthy has already brought in six new players to Molineux this summer and insists that he must look to off-load personnel before attempting to bring in any more new faces.

The versatile Mancienne, who is comfortable in defence or as a holding midfielder, has already spent two seasons on loan at Wolves. According to reports he has asked for a transfer away from Stamford Bridge and it would cost Wolves around £4million if they wished to secure his services permanently.

Despite often speaking highly of Mancienne, McCarthy expressed his view on the situation saying, “I guess people should ask their (Chelsea’s) manager Carlo Ancelotti whether we should read anything into the transfer request.

“If I was reading anything into it, I suggest he wants a transfer! But that’s the first I’ve heard about it.

“I’m not looking at signings at all at the moment.

“We need to lose some players rather than take any more in and certainly won’t do any more business unless anyone leaves.”

Mancienne, who has also been linked with Spanish clubs Malaga and Sevilla as well as Portuguese outfit Sporting Lisbon, initially joined up with Wolves during their 2008/09 campaign, helping them gain automatic promotion from the Championship.

Wolves are currently 3.25 to be relegated from the Premier League 2010/11 and are 1.33 not to be relegated.

Their opening Premier League fixture sees them play host to rivals Stoke. Wolves are on offer at 2.30, the draw is available at 3.25 whereas Stoke are 2.87 to take all three points.

View all Soccer betting

Paul Scholes admits that he needs to scale down the amount of games he plays and that playing two or three times a week is now out of the question.

However, the veteran midfield maestro is more determined than ever to win back the Premier League title from Chelsea.

Scholes, now 35, has been improving his fitness on United’s pre-season tour of America, and looks set to get another run-out against the MLS All Stars tomorrow.

Match betting for the friendly has MLS All Stars at 4.75 to win in 90 minutes, while United can be backed at 1.60 and the draw is 3.75.

Along with Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville, who is currently recovering from a calf injury, Scholes concedes they are given more rest now by manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

He said: “I know that playing two or three times a week it is not going to happen any more. So you just have to be ready when needed.

“It is accepted, definitely, given there are that many games and at our age we have to be ready when the manager needs us.

“You train every day and I did not miss a day’s training last season, which was good. I managed to avoid injury. When you are at a club like this you have to be capable of doing that, especially like last season when we had that many injuries.”

United finished one point behind Premier League champions Chelsea last year and Scholes reflected on a spell in December when a number of defenders were sidelined at the same time.

He said: “We didn’t win what we wanted to but were not that far off. You do not want to use excuses but the injuries we had were shocking really.

“Hopefully most of us can stay fit this year and hopefully we can go one step further than last season.”

Manchester United are 3.50 to win the Premier League 2010/11.

View all Soccer betting