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Ferguson blames Hargreaves injury on anxiety

Owen Hargreaves lasted just five minutes for Manchester United © Getty Images

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Sir Alex Ferguson believes a lack of match fitness and feelings of anxiety led Owen Hargreaves to suffer a hamstring injury five minutes into his comeback.

Hargreaves had played only 60 seconds of first-team football since September 2008 when he was given a surprise start in the 2-1 victory over Wolves, but he signalled that he needed to be replaced earlier on and Bebe was brought on in his place.

Hargreaves, who has had surgery on both knees in a bid to cure his tendinitis problem, was passed fit to feature on Saturday by the club's medical staff, and Ferguson feels psychological concerns may have had an influence.

"It is possibly because of a lack of match fitness," Ferguson told Key103. "Maybe a bit of anxiety at playing his first game had a bit to do with it, too."

He added: "We had to take a check on the morning of the game. We pulled Ryan (Giggs) into the squad but unfortunately he was just feeling his hamstring a little bit, so he was too big a risk.

"Paul Scholes was not fit enough to start because he wasn't feeling 100%, so we looked at the situation with Owen.

"He has been training very well and the doctor thought he was fine to play. Unfortunately he only lasted a couple of minutes."

There has not yet been any indication of how long Hargreaves is likely to be out with this latest setback, but team-mate John O'Shea has every expectation that he will recover full fitness.

"I feel so sorry for Owen," he told MUTV. "He was looking forward to it so much and we were all excited for him.

"He has worked very hard to get to this point. There will be one or two niggles, that is bound to happen, but he will be back, there is no doubt about that."

Hargreaves, 29, is in the final year of his contract at Old Trafford.

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