As expected Rio Ferdinand and Edwin van der Sar miss
Arsenal's OT visit on Saturday, but United are boosted by news that
Owen Hargreaves returns to the club on 23 September.
The midfielder hasn't played for a year, during
which time he's had operations on both knees to solve his
tendonitis problems, so that return date is not his playing
comeback. He's been doing rehabilitation work in America this
summer and United first must assess at what stage he is at in terms
of his recovery. Nevertheless, Sir Alex says his impending return
is "a great addition to us".
"We're in dialogue all the time with Owen and the physio who's
conducting his rehabilitation in America," the boss said on Friday.
"He'll come with Owen for a week for the change-over so we can
jointly understand the treatment and rehabilitation he's been
doing. That's straightforward.
"The difficulty is getting him back into football work. I say
difficult because we've not seen him all this time. We're relying
on information we get from the States. We're certain that his
fitness work will be good, we just have to guage the right time to
bring him into football training. You don't have a player out for a
year and then just throw him straight into the fire.
"The important thing is to get him back playing to his level, which
is a very good level, because he'll be a great addition to
us."
In the short-term, only Rio and Edwin miss out on Saturday's
tea-time clash with Arsenal. "Everyone else is OK," said Sir Alex.
"Although Rafael is still long term." Rio said this week that he
expects to return for the Tottenham game on 12 September, but Sir
Alex added: "We think it'll be longer than that. We think it'll be
the week after that."