Manchester United

Hargreaves has been suffering with chronic tendinitis in both knees and there were fears he may be forced to hang up his boots.

However, the 29-year-old has now returned to training after seeing renowned specialist Dr Richard Steadman and Ferguson has revealed the midfielder could be back in the near future.

“Owen Hargreaves has come back training, he trained with the first team,” Ferguson  told MUTV.

“He looked very good. I was surprised how good he was looking. It’s an extra string to our bow.

“Bringing him in at this time, after being out for so long, obviously we’ll have to monitor him and see how he’s going to progress in the next few weeks.”

Hargreaves made a brief return to action towards the end of last season only for his problem to flare up again and Ferguson admits he is wary of sending him back into competitive football too early.

He added: “He’s been out for so long you have to see whether there’s going to be a relapse.

“That’s the first thing on our mind at the moment but having watched him in training, if he continues that way he’s going to give me another selection problem, no question about that.”

United take on Bolton at the Reebok Stadium on Sunday at high noon. Hargreaves will play no part against the Wanderers as he is still lacking match fitness.

However, Rio Ferdinand is expected to be handed his first league start of the season after a lengthy lay-off stretching back to before the World Cup (Bolton 13/2, draw 16/5, United 4/9).

Bolton will be without defender Gary Cahill, who will serve the final match of his suspension following a questionable red card at Arsenal, but goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen is available again after serving his own suspension.

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Owen Hargreaves

The 29-year-old midfielder, who United signed from Bayern Munich for £17million in 2007, only returned from an 18-month knee injury absence at the end of last season when he featured in several reserve-team matches and made a three-minute substitute appearance in the 1-0 Premier League win at Sunderland.

However, while Hargreaves’ return was too late for him to be considered for Fabio Capello’s England squad for the ill-fated World Cup campaign in South Africa, it was hoped that he would be fit to start the new league season when newly-promoted Newcastle visit Old Trafford (United 1/5, Newcastle 10/1, draw 9/2 – 90 Minutes) in mid-August. But United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has now revealed that Hargreaves picked up a fresh problem in training and will miss the club’s upcoming pre-season tour of America in order to see a specialist in the States.

“He will not be ready for the start of the season,” Ferguson told MUTV. “I do not know when he will be back.”

The disappointing news on Hargreaves follows on from the news that central defender Rio Ferdinand will also miss the Newcastle match on Monday August 16 due to the knee injury he picked up in training ahead of England’s first World Cup group stage match with the United States in June.

Ferguson added: “Rio will probably not make the start of the season. It will be close. It depends on his progress over the next few weeks.”

There is some good news for United fans as Antonio Valencia, Nani and Michael Owen should all be fit for the new campaign after recovering from respective hamstring, shoulder and hamstring problems, while Anderson is making good progress in recovering from the cruciate knee injury he suffered last September.

United depart for their training camp in Chicago on Monday.

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