O'Shea to miss United opener

John O’Shea will rest up when Manchester United face Bayern Munich on Sunday in their opening ChampionsWorld series match.

However, the Republic of Ireland defender is aiming to return in the following two games when Celtic and then AC Milan provide the opposition.

The match at Soldier Field has come a little bit too quickly for O’Shea, who needed a small knee operation in the summer.

He said: “I won’t be okay for this first game but hopefully I will be for the other two. I just don’t want to push it too much and come back too quickly, especially with the amount of games coming up in August.

“It is going to be an important time and I have to be right.”

O’Shea felt discomfort when walking and found out that the injury could have occurred last season.

“They trimmed a little bit off the cartilage and I am told it is as good as new now,” he said.

“What the surgeon said to the doctor was that it may have happened during the season. It was something that was waiting to happen.

“I was fortunate it did happen in the summer because it was obviously off-season, no games. So I was lucky.

“It happened while I was walking and I just got it checked out. There was a little problem there.”

American goalkeeper Tim Howard has linked up with the squad ahead of the opening game and looks set to start.

Defender Jonathan Spector, 18, could be given a run-out on home soil as some of United’s top players are being rested.

Manager Sir Alex Ferguson is hoping the intense pre-season programme, beginning here in America, will kick-start their Premiership season, which begins on August 15.

The United boss and his assistant Carlos Queiroz led the squad in another training session today in searing humidity.

He takes great stock from getting the planning spot-on and believes it was what happened before Portugal that led Greece to an unlikely victory in Euro 2004.

“Preparation is vital,” he said. “Greece had perfect preparation.

“The players were fresher, so more could be done with their preparation.

“One thing is obvious. The major countries failed in Portugal and you have to ask why.

“Was it down to preparation or was it down to what happened before preparation?

“Greece were the fresher team and the coach did a great job.

“They were disciplined, committed and the fitness team in the tournament.”

Ferguson believes you cannot push players too hard too early in the close season.

“You have to consider how much football has been played before you think about preparation,” he said.

“When I was coach with Scotland, I made a decision that we did no endurance work during the World Cup, only football training.

“I felt that come the end of the season having played through a hard programme it was ridiculous to ask the players to do endurance work.”

United are without their big names like Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes and the Neville brothers Gary and Phil.

But ChampionsWorld spokesman Charlie Stillitano said: “It is something you have to live with. It is why these teams have such big squads. There are no limits like there are in the NFL or Major League baseball.

“Not having Ruud (van Nistelrooy) is obviously disappointing.

“But we have been blessed with the other teams – especially Chelsea and AC Milan – they are bringing everyone.”