HARGREAVES TO MISS ANOTHER FIVE WEEKS

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Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed he expects Owen Hargreaves to be out of action for up to five weeks with the hamstring injury he suffered against Wolves on Saturday - and also ruled Ryan Giggs out of Wednesday's Manchester derby.

Making his first senior Manchester United start since September 2008, Hargreaves lasted just five minutes before he pulled up indicating he had suffered a problem and had to be replaced by Bebe.

Now Ferguson has revealed the 29-year-old will be out of action until the middle of next month, although it is possible Hargreaves could play some part in the Christmas programme.

"We were at the stage where we knew Owen's knee was okay," Ferguson told Key 103.

"His training performances for eight or nine days previously had been terrific.

"He had done really well, which is why we took the chance.

"But maybe the tension in the build-up for the lad was too much and he suffered because of it."

As soon as Hargreaves came off on Saturday, Ferguson knew he would play no part against City.

But the loss of Giggs is a major blow.

The veteran Welshman was hoping to make a record 34th derby appearance at Eastlands but after feeling the hamstring injury that has kept him on the sidelines for all but one of United's last nine games in a session just prior to Saturday's win over Wolves, Ferguson has reluctantly ruled Giggs out of his plans.

"Ryan is out," said the Scot.

The news on Nani was not much better either.

Although there is an outside chance the Portugal winger may recover from the groin injury he suffered in last week's Champions League triumph over Bursaspor, Ferguson is dubious about Nani's prospects of facing City.

"Nani is doubtful," said Ferguson.

"At this stage it doesn't look as if he will make it. It is not a great position for us to be in. We are counting heads at the moment."

United's problems are not made any easier by a virus that has swept their Carrington HQ since the return from Turkey, with Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Dimitar Berbatov and Paul Scholes all believed to be amongst the victims.

It means Ferguson might again be reliant on some of the untested members of his squad for one of the biggest nights of the season.

"There is nothing more satisfying than winning a derby game," he said. "It doesn't matter what year it is or when it is."

United came out on top last term, emerging victorious in a thrilling Carling Cup semi-final, as well as both Premier League meetings, thanks to injury-time winners.

Having closed the gap on Premier League leaders Chelsea to two points at the weekend, the need for points is obvious, quite apart from meeting a challenge laid down by City, whose money has catapulted them into a Champions League place, even if manager Roberto Mancini has been forced to encounter a string of problems along the way.

"If clubs have money and want to spend it, they will," said Ferguson.

"Chelsea did the same. So did Sunderland back in the 1950s.

"It is not an unusual thing. It is a fact of life. The only difference is that City is an untapped well at the moment.

"But it is difficult to say whether it is inevitable they are going to win the league at some point.

"Obviously, in many people's eyes, having the money is a lot better than not having it.

"But it is still a difficult league to win. City recognise that themselves."

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Sir Alex Ferguson labelled Owen Hargreaves latest injury as a "disaster" after Manchester United struck a last-gasp winner to beat Wolves 2-1 at Old Trafford.

Hargreaves, making his first start for the club in over two years, only lasted five minutes before coming off with a hamstring injury. Park Ji-sung hit the winner in injury time to prevent United slipping further behind Chelsea in the title race.

And with the Manchester derby looming large on Wednesday, Ferguson was delighted to get three points on the board with something of a depleted team.

"We have done really well to get a result,'' said Ferguson. "You have to admire the perseverance of the team because we have done it so many times. But it was a long struggle today because we made so many changes.''

Ferguson revealed skipper Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Paul Scholes had all been suffering from a flu virus that even kept the Scot away from training on Friday. It led him to take a chance on the fitness of Owen Hargreaves, which backfired badly as he lasted just five minutes on his first start since September 2008 after suffering a hamstring injury.

"We took a gamble with Owen Hargreaves,'' admitted Ferguson. "We thought by doing that it would give us a compact midfield with experience. But he only lasted five minutes. It was a disaster.

"He has hurt his hamstring, which is unbelievable. It put us under the cosh. Patrice Evra, Paul Scholes and Nemanja Vidic were all feeling under the weather, then we had to bring Bebe on. He has potential but he is learning.

"What we needed was the patience to open them up because we were playing without a lot of players who can make a difference at that stage of the game. It is unfortunate we didn't get one earlier. Nevertheless, we will take it.''

Ferguson will have to conduct a body count on Monday before he can finalise his derby-day plans, although he cast doubt on the likelihood of Nani being fit after the Portugal winger suffered a groin injury against Bursaspor.

"The games are piling up,'' said the United boss. "I don't think Nani will be fit on Wednesday but I hope Berbatov will be in to train on Monday.''

As United can look ahead with tentative confidence, Wolves must now face up to a midweek meeting with Arsenal cursing their luck after suffering a second late defeat at Old Trafford in 11 days.

Typically, Mick McCarthy took rather a forceful view of the situation. "That was harsh. Everyone knows we deserved something out of it,'' said McCarthy, whose side levelled Park's first-half strike through United old-boy Sylvan Ebanks-Blake midway through the second period.

"But we didn't get anything. Nowt. Diddly-squat. I could wax lyrical about the performance but I am not going to. We got nothing from the game. To do that after playing so well at Old Trafford could do some damage to us.''

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I really thought Hargreaves would be United's midfield lynchpin in years to come when he arrived 3 seasons ago. I thought we have finally secured Keane's successor. How did it all go wrong.

I think Hargreaves should do the sensible thing in leaving the game. Free up a slot for other player and free up his salary for others too.

omgukilledkenny SG

What has Hargo's hamstring got to do with Alexis Sanchez sia.

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John O’Shea expects Owen Hargreaves to return from his latest injury setback.

The 29-year-old midfielder suffered a hamstring strain within four minutes of his surprise return against Wolves, and cut a disconsolate figure as he trudged to Old Trafford's home dressing room for treatment.

Despite the latest episode in his luckless, injury-ravaged United career, O’Shea is certain that Hargreaves will return.

“We feel so sorry for him,” the Irishman told MUTV. “He was so looking forward to it and we were really excited for him as well after all the hard work he’s put in.

“We just have to wait and see exactly what the injury is, but he’ll be back again, no doubt about that. He’s worked very hard to get to this point and I’m sure there’ll be a few little niggles - he’s just got to get over them quickly.”

Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that his decision to field Hargreaves was a gamble brought about by circumstances, given the spate of players laid low by illness during the course of the week.

“I took a gamble with Hargreaves but he'd been training really well and I thought by picking him we'd have a compact midfield with experience,” said the manager. “But it only lasted a couple of minutes, it was a disaster.”

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The Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves, number four, disappears down the players' tunnel holding the hamstring which he injured after four minutes. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

Once, when he was at Bayern Munich, recovering from a broken leg, Owen Hargreaves got into his car and drove through the autobahns, autoroutes and autopistas and did not stop until his Porsche had reached the Spanish coast. He was giving vent to a frustration that threatened to consume him but, compared to what he would suffer at Manchester United, it would prove a mere inconvenience.

On Saturday night, after a comeback that had lasted only five minutes, the rain-slicked carriageways of Manchester's outer ring-road would have seemed curiously appealing. There would have been a part of him that would have wanted to drive.

It had been 26 months since he last started a game for the club who had paid Bayern Munich £18m for the services of a player who had been the ruby in the dust of England's miserable 2006 World Cup campaign. The tendinitis that has plagued and taunted him for two years had allowed him a token minute as a substitute in United's penultimate game of last season at Sunderland and now this surprise start had finished when he attempted a low cross, pulled a hamstring and told the bench he could not continue.

When summing up his decision to throw him into the fray, the manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, used words like "gamble", "disaster" and "unbelievable". It was hard to disagree. Fabio Capello was in the directors' box at Old Trafford and Hargreaves, who both on and off the field is one of the country's most intelligent footballers, should have provided the midfield backbone for Manchester United and England for three seasons now.

However, his contract is up in June and you wonder, however much he feels for his player, whether Ferguson can afford to renew it. He had supported Ole Gunnar Solskjaer through similar setbacks, although the Norwegian striker eventually bowed to his body's demands.

"It is possibly because of a lack of match fitness," said Ferguson of an injury that could cost Hargreaves another four weeks. "Maybe a bit of anxiety at playing his first game had a bit to do with it, too. We pulled Ryan Giggs into the squad but unfortunately he was feeling his hamstring a little bit so he was too big a risk.

"Paul Scholes was not fit enough to start because he wasn't feeling 100% so we looked at the situation with Owen. He has been training very well and the doctor thought he was fine to play, but unfortunately he lasted only a couple of minutes." Had Park Ji-sung, running at a line of gold shirts in the final minute, chosen to cross – which was his first thought – rather than drive his shot into the corner of the Wolverhampton net, this would have been a disastrous afternoon for Manchester United.

Laid low by the flu that had flattened his squad and which would have made him search out Beechams Powders rather than his regular post-match glass of claret, Ferguson would have contemplated a gap with Chelsea that even on the 24th anniversary of his accession might have seemed insurmountable.

In this, as in nothing else here, this was classic Manchester United; horribly below-par, wheezing through a match they might have lost but playing as always to the final whistle to force a sixth successive victory. On Wednesday comes the Manchester derby and the club that Ferguson dismissed as "noisy neighbours", although these days City's noise comes from squabbles among themselves.

It would have escaped neither club's notice that in both of last season's league encounters, United snatched victory in the final minute. There was no point trying to reason with the Wolves manager, Mick McCarthy, that his team had deserved their first point here in 30 years. "I am not interested, we got zero, zilch, zip," he said. He had lost and any other words would have been superfluous.