Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves will miss the start of the season after an injury setback.

Manager Sir Alex Ferguson says the 29-year-old will not join the club on pre-season tour and has gone to America to see a specialist instead.

"He will not be ready for the start of the season," Ferguson told MUTV. "I do not know when he will be back."

Hargreaves was out for 18 months with knee problems but looked to have returned to the game in May.

The former Bayern Munich player, who joined Manchester United in 2007 in a £17m deal, played several reserve matches towards the end of last season.

He had been suffering from tendinitis and had undergone knee surgery in America in 2008 in a bid to solve the long-term problem.

But he returned to reserve team action in 2010 and came on as a late substitute in United's 1-0 win over Sunderland in the penultimate game of the season on 2 May.

The Canadian-born Englishman came on for three minutes at the end of that match but did not feature in the final game, a 4-0 win over Stoke on 9 May.

Ferguson also fears centre-back Rio Ferdinand will not be ready for the first game of the season against Newcastle on Monday 16 August.

Ferdinand suffered a knee injury in training ahead of England's World Cup group stage match with the United States in June and was unable to play any part for the national side in South Africa.

Ferguson said: "Rio will probably not make the start of the season. It will be close. It depends on his progress over the next few weeks."

United leave for their training camp in Chicago on Monday 11 July.

BBC
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Makes me wanna go FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.

Gutted for Hargreaves.

Hargreaves to miss start of new season


Who would've thought, eh?

Rio will be fit after a couple of PL games which is a relief as media was reporting him to be out till November.

Rahul wrote:

Rio will be fit after a couple of PL games which is a relief as media was reporting him to be out till November.

Yeah, it's about time that he too started to play consistently. I am desperately hoping for some defense consistency this season. Like the 07/08 season when Rio and Vida pwned all.

No wonder SAF dealing some defenders to get consistency.

D'oh!
I feared this
Really hoping to see him play soon

I think it's pretty much over for Hargreaves. We can't have a player in the 25 man squad when he has played only 5 minutes of competitive football in two years.

Was a very good player for us and offered a lot defensively and with his set pieces ability. We got mugged by Bayern.

His goal against arsenal is still memorable. what a FK!

Vishal16 wrote:

His goal against arsenal is still memorable. what a FK!

That's what you keep saying every time his name is mentioned. It was just one goal. Nothing more.

It sure was an awesome goal, wnt ever 4get the 3-0 scoreline.

Bunnyruddha wrote:

It sure was an awesome goal, wnt ever 4get the 3-0 scoreline.

But we won the match 2-1

Rahul wrote:

Bunnyruddha wrote:

It sure was an awesome goal, wnt ever 4get the 3-0 scoreline.

But we won the match 2-1

Yeah

Hargreaves had scored a FK against Fulham though in a 3-0 win. That was awesome too.

Navpreet wrote:

Rahul wrote:

Bunnyruddha wrote:

It sure was an awesome goal, wnt ever 4get the 3-0 scoreline.

But we won the match 2-1

Yeah

Hargreaves had scored a FK against Fulham though in a 3-0 win. That was awesome too.

I know about that. It was from a really similar spot too. but he mentioned it for the Arsenal game.

Oh, Doh! my bad
yea yea, it was 2-1 :