Hargreaves puts faith in surgeon

Owen Hargreaves must put his career in the hands of leading knee specialist Dr Richard Steadman.

The Colorado-based surgeon has already carried out an operation on Hargreaves’ right knee and declared it a success.

In a few weeks he will do the same procedure on Hargreaves’ left knee. Then, the England star will hope to put two years of injury hell behind him.

The 27-year-old may have managed 37 United appearances since his £18m arrival from Bayern Munich last year but at no point has the 27-year-old been free of pain.

A series of injections to combat a problem that first surfaced before his move to England have failed to do the trick.

So, even though he was able to play a major role in last season’s thrilling finale and claim a place in the United side that won the Champions League by beating Chelsea in Moscow, Hargreaves has bowed to the inevitable.

“Hopefully this has got to the bottom of it and we will get him back fit for next season,” said United boss Sir Alex Ferguson.

The Calgary-born midfielder has been restricted to just three outings this term, one of them an effective performance against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Hargreaves has not played a competitive game for England since March 2007 and has become increasingly frustrated at a problem that would not go away.

Ferguson confirmed on Friday that Hargreaves had recently seen specialists in London and Sweden without being able to get the injury resolved, sparking fears his career might be in jeopardy.

Those doubts will not go away until Hargreaves has returned to action on a full-time basis.

However, in Steadman, the player knows he is in safe hands, even if most of his football-related work has been treating cruciate knee ligament injuries.

Hargreaves should have some company too as former United star Ruud van Nistelrooy has flown to see Steadman – the man who performed his own cruciate operation – for treatment on a knee injury that has recently surfaced.