Man Utd star to see career-saving surgeon

Owen Hargreaves has jetted out to the United States in a bid to find a solution to his mystery long-term knee injury and salvage his Manchester United career.

The England midfielder recently visited specialists in Sweden and London who failed to find an answer to the persistent tendonitis problem that has restricted Hargreaves to just three appearances this season.

And he has now been sent to world renowned surgeon Dr Richard Steadman amid growing fears that the player could require major surgery, or even that his career could come to a premature end.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said: “We have been trying to manage the situation and the way we have been trying to manage it has not given us an answer.

“Over the past ten days he has been to see a specialist in Sweden and sent him to a specialist in London and he is now in Colorado at the moment seeing Mr Steadman who is a very well regarded and respected doctor in these particular types of injuries.

“What we are trying to do now is get to the root of it because the lad has been frustrated and patient and we have never really got to the bottom of his problem.

“But we really need to speed that up now and that is why we have sent him to the best people available to try and get an opinion on where we go from here.

“He is now in Colorado and we are waiting for information to come back. He has been carrying it for too long for us to hope that injections are just going to do the trick.”

Hargreaves, 27, has so far made just 17 league starts for United since joining from Bayern Munich before the start of last season and Ferguson admitted the situation is causing concern.

He added: “Owen has come back for different games and then been out again and it is frustrating for the lad and we are trying to help him.”

Ferguson has been handed better news after Paul Scholes stepped up his recovery from a knee problem, enabling him to target a December return.

The manager said: “Paul Scholes has started training. It's only straight running and nothing serious but it's good to see him overcome the injury itself and move onto the next part of his rehabilitation.

“I think he will be available to go to the World Club Championship in Japan. That's what we have penciled in.”