Official confirms Yao to return to action this week

China's Yao Ming is likely to play his first competitive game since having surgery on his foot in March at this week's Stankovic Cup pre-Beijing Olympic basketball tournament, local media reported on Tuesday.

The 2.28m Houston Rockets center, whose NBA season was ended by a stress fracture, returned to China to join the national squad for training last month but played no part in two warm-up games against Australia in Jiangsu.

"Yao will definitely go to the Stankovic Cup in Hangzhou, and the chance of him playing is very high," Hu Jiashi, vice-chief of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), told Oriental Sports Daily.