Welcome back to the Liberty Stadium for our first league game of 2008.

It wasn't a good start to the New Year for midfielder Andrea Orlandi, however, after the midfielder suffered a serious knee injury against Brighton in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy semi-final on January 8.

Our fears were confirmed when Andrea went for an MRI scan. It showed sprained medial ligaments of the knee and a tear in the cartilage.

After a further consultation in London, it was confirmed that Andrea would need an operation that would keep him out for around three months.

He's due to have that operation at the end of the month. We were hoping to get him in sooner, but the surgeon wants all the damage and scars that he sustained against Havant in the FA Cup to heal first. That way there is less risk of Andrea picking up an infection.

If everything goes to plan, we hope to have Andrea back in action at the end of April for that final push for promotion.

Owain Tudur Jones is progressing really well from his ankle problem. He's doing a lot of straight running and balance work on the training ground with minimal reaction and you should see him back in action in the middle of February.

Darren Way has also been doing light training after returning from his loan spell at Yeovil with a hamstring injury.

He is improving with every session and we can look forward to him making his return very soon.

On a different and more serious note, the club is in the process of updating our player screening in light of the recent cardiac related deaths in football.

It was something we were already in the process of looking into, but we are now pushing it forward at a much quicker pace.

Currently the PFA pay for all the youth players to be screened. Unfortunately, this is a fairly new initiative and we've discovered that most of the older players in the first team squad missed out when they were younger.

Saying that, all the Spanish and Dutch players in the squad have been screened back home at least once a year by their respective clubs.

It's something we also need to do on a regular basis in this country. And, in line with the recent comments from PFA chairman Gordon Taylor, the Swans medical team has taken it upon itself to look for a company that will provide us with a competent screening process at a competitive price.

It's our aim to provide cardiac screening for every player on a yearly basis from now on.