Manchester United's Owen Hargreaves has pulled out
of Friday night's UEFA Super Cup clash with Zenit St Petersburg due
to an injury setback.
The England midfielder suffered a recurrence of his
long-standing knee injury in training.
He was due to make a 45-minute appearance in Monaco and there
had been some speculation Hargreaves could even find his way into
Fabio Capello's squad for next month's World Cup qualifiers against
Andorra and Croatia despite Sir Alex Ferguson rejecting the theory
on Thursday.
But any hope of Hargreaves donning the Three Lions again has now
been squashed, with the midfielder missing the Zenit game on
Friday.
The extent of the 27-year-old's problem is not clear but his
absence is a blow given Michael Carrick is also out with an ankle
injury.
Hargreaves will certainly be frustrated as he has missed
United's entire pre-season so far.
The former Bayern Munich man has had injections to ease a
tendinitis problem that first surfaced last summer, just after his
move to Old Trafford.
Having sat out United's pre-season tour to South Africa, it was
thought Hargreaves would be available for United's early season
games.
That may still be the case given the Red Devils are not in
action again until they visit Liverpool on September 13 but there
are bound to be concerns over the £18million man's long-term
availability.
