Aston Villa's Danish contingent has become a good source of optimism after reporting back for pre-season training in surprisingly buoy-ant mood this week.

Defender Martin Laursen's return to the first-team fold after suffering a career-threatening knee injury has been well chronicled. But it has been revealed that his international colleague, goal-keeper Thomas Sorensen, is also fully fit again following a painful finger injury he received while on international duty last May.

Sorensen strained his ligaments and chipped a piece of bone while playing for Denmark against Brondby IF in a warm-up match before his country's friendles in the summer. But two months' rest has done the trick and he has reported back to Bodymoor Heath with no ill-effects.

"I had to have it in a brace for about six weeks but it's fine now," Sorensen said. "I got the brace off last week and there haven't been any problems in training, so it shouldn't cause any major concerns.

"If there's a good time to pick up an injury, this was it. I would have been really frustrated if Denmark had been playing in the World Cup but we weren't and I had plenty of time to recover."

While Sorensen and Laursen are certainly fit in body, a key to the Villa season ahead will be getting their minds right. Laursen is insistent that last season's disappointing 16th-place finish and flirtation with relegation must be mentally erased.

"Last season wasn't good enough," Laursen said. "We are all just looking forward now and we don't want to talk about what happened.

"Of course we need to learn from what happened and the mistakes that we made, that we need to do better but that was last season, this is now.

"We need to talk about this season and to think about this season."

Having been an eye-witness of the embarrassing 5-0 hammering Villa had on their final match of the season at High-bury in April, Laursen under-stands the need for him to be ready to play a part on the first day of the season, at Arsenal's glamorous new Emirates Stadium.

"I don't know if I can be ready for the first match but I will try," he said, "If not for the first game, then there are a lot of matches coming up this season. The most important thing is that I don't break down again.

"I have no dates, I will just see how every week goes and how my knee reacts with the training and then we will take it from there." n Manchester City have paid compensation to Bolton Wanderers to secure the services of Dietmar Hamann, even though he never kicked a ball for the latter club.

The bizarre situation came to light when the former Germany midfielder was unveiled at City's Carrington training ground yesterday by manager Stuart Pearce.

It is the latest twist in an extraordinary drama which unfolded in the space of 90 minutes on Tuesday afternoon when initially it was stated that Hamann was leaving Liverpool for Bolton.

The Trotters then revealed his stay at the Reebok Stadium would be one of the shortest in history.

Instead of joining Sam Allardyce's squad as initially agreed, the 32-year-old said he would be joining City instead.

Hamann explained that he made the decision to join Bolton too quickly, only hours after deciding to leave Liverpool.

But he said: "It sounds as though I made my mind up yesterday [Tuesday] not to go to Bolton but that is not the case.

"I signed for Bolton Wanderers four or five weeks ago and realised a few days later I had made a mistake. I informed the club a few days later that I would like to go somewhere else if possible.

"After a week, they told me I was open to speak to other clubs. A few clubs were interested in me and Manchester City were one of them. I am delighted to be here now."