Look who's back: Hargreaves trains at
Carrington
Owen Hargreaves has returned to training with
Manchester
United's first team and is pushing hard
for selection, Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed.
The England midfield ace has spent almost two years trying to
recover from a career-threatening tendinitis problem in his knees
and is now finally on the verge of a comeback.
Hargreaves managed a 45-minute reserve team outing before coming
on for the final few seconds of the Premier League win over
Sunderland in May, but then suffered a setback in his
recovery.
But the former Bayern Munich star now looks set to put pressure
on United's midfielders for a place in the starting line-up, with
Ferguson praising his performances in training.
Ferguson told MUTV: 'Owen Hargreaves has come back training, he
trained yesterday with the first team. He looked very good. I was
surprised actually how good he was looking.
'It's an extra string to our bow, bringing him in at this time.
After being out for so long, we'll obviously have to monitor him
and see how he's going to progress in the next few weeks. But it's
good to see him back.
'Because he's been out for so long you have to see whether
there's going to be a relapse. That's the first thing on our mind
at the moment but having watched him in training yesterday if he
continues that way he's going to give me another selection problem,
no question about that.'
Relapse: Hargreaves suffered a setback after his
last comeback in May
Given the length of time Hargreaves has spent on the
treatment table it is no surprise that there is a note of caution
within Ferguson's praise. But there was further good news for the
29-year-old when his doctor, the renowned knee specialist Richard
Steadman, revealed that Hargreaves' recpovery is almost
complete.
'Things are looking good for Owen, it's all worked out,'
Steadman said.'He's close to playing fitness, although it's
obviously up to United to decide when he plays a match.'
Steadman added: 'The problem was with the tendon attached to the
patella on each knee, which is difficult to resolve," added
Steadman.
'After the surgery, the key was rest and working hard on
recovery. Owen has spent a lot of time with us here in Colorado and
he has never given up. The recovery was arduous and took a long
time but his condition looks promising now.'
On the mend: Michael Carrick
Ferguson also revealed that Hargreaves' fellow
midfielder Michael Carrick is also close to a return to action
following achilles trouble.
'Michael started training last week,' said Ferguson. 'He had
that injection on his achilles to settle it down. It was nothing
serious, just one of those niggling little problems you can get
with your achilles, particularly at the start of the season when
grounds are firm. But he's fine, he's started training.'
