Hargreaves aponda sindano aliyochomwa Man United

OWEN HARGREAVES last night claimed he felt like a 'guinea pig' as Manchester United tried to
end his injury nightmare.

The former Old Trafford and England star lifted the lid on three years of pain as he struggled to overcome crippling knee tendon problems.

United battled hard to save their £17million signing from Bayern Munich, who even received
injections to help overcome the agony of his injuries.

And although United's record for treating players is exemplary, and there is absolutely no
evidence whatsoever that Hargreaves was misdiagnosed or improperly treated, the player
remains disillusioned.

The 30-year-old spoke after making a spectacular comeback on Wednesday with his new club
Manchester City, scoring the opener in their 2-0 Carling Cup win over Birmingham.

Hargreaves joined United in the summer of 2007 but saw his career disintegrate after his
first year there.

He played six minutes of first-team football in three years. Hargreaves recalled: "After my
first season, I had a bit of a tendon problem, which I did not realise the magnitude of.
"I played and it got a little bit worse. We treated it and it got significantly worse after
that through the injections I had."

Hargreaves claims he was encouraged to accept the injections by United in the belief they
would assist his condition.

He added: "All the people there are lovely. Everybody tries their best.

"They said it would help. That obviously wasn't the case.

"With my tendon injury, I've had to be a guinea pig for a lot of these treatments.

"You're left to try and make something of a difficult situation.

"Basically I wanted to play, everyone wanted me to play, so it's not really an option to say sit it out and rest for six months.

"With hindsight, it's a lot easier. Yep, probably the injections I had, I should probably
not have had.

"I received some injections and after that my tendon was never the same.

"After the injections, I tried to get back on my feet, but it felt like I was made out of
glass. That obviously had a huge impact.

"Basically, I was left to pick up the pieces, which was incredibly frustrating. That was
surgery and that was 18 months gone.

"So at times, I'd watch games and be jealous of the way people could move, as funny as that
sounds.

"I wondered if I was going to be able to be as sharp."

MANCINI anasemaje?

Three weeks later, Hargreaves showed it was a gamble worth taking by Mancini.

It took him just 17 minutes to score against Birmingham, seizing on a loose ball as Carlos
Tevez and Mario Balotelli had their route into the penalty area blocked and unleashing the
ball from distance past goalkeeper Colin Doyle and into the top corner of the net.

“Owen is a fantastic player, who can become a very important player for us,” Mancini said.

“He hasn’t had any problems in the last three weeks. At the moment his knee is fine.”

Hargreaves was still on the pitch when Mario Balotelli scored his first goal of the season
to make it 2-0 in the 38th minute.