Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has defended his club's medical staff after Owen Hargreaves accused the Premier League champions of treating him like a "guinea pig" during an injury-hit spell with them.
Hargreaves, who joined rival Manchester City as a free agent in the off-season after four years in the red half of the city where he made just 39 appearances, said injections he had received had hampered his recovery from knee problems.
"We've been trying to analyse all the stuff he's said this morning and we are going to have a club statement to address that," Ferguson told a news conference.
"But as far as I'm concerned ... my medical staff are one of the main reasons Manchester United have been so successful in the last few years. There is absolutely no doubt about that. We have fantastic medical staff and great sports scientists.
"That's my opinion of Manchester United and that's more important than what anyone else has got to say about that."
Canadian-born Hargreaves, whose career has been blighted by chronic tendonitis in his knees requiring surgery, was critical of his former club in comments reported by local media.
"I received some injections and my tendon was never the same," he said.
"I tried to get back on my feet and (United's medical staff) said my tendon was good, but it felt like I was made of glass.
"(The injections) obviously had a huge impact. With hindsight, I probably should not have had them. It's difficult.
"I've had to be a guinea pig for a lot of treatments."
He also suggested he was pressured into playing against Wolverhampton Wanderers last season, his only appearance last term which lasted just five minutes when he limped off with a hamstring injury.
"I said, 'I think I've got a bit of a muscle problem here'," Hargreaves said.
"I was surprised it didn't go in the warm-up. I wasn't going to sprint, which sounds comical. I was just going to try to get through 45 minutes because that would have been a start.
"But I didn't even last five. I wasn't surprised because I had said to them that I had a hamstring problem, which I obviously did have."
The midfielder moved to Germany aged 16 to join Bayern Munich where he won the Champions League, four Bundesliga titles and three German Cups.
The Canadian-born 30-year-old, who has won 42 England caps, played at the 2002 World Cup and was outstanding at the 2006 finals and although he broke his leg the following season that did not put off United who signed him for 17 million pounds.
He won the Champions League and Premier League during his first season with United but then spent most of his time in the treatment room.
He famously posted videos of himself on YouTube carrying out exercise and mobility drills to prove his fitness shortly before securing his move across town to Roberto Mancini's City.
He made his first appearance for his new club this week, marking the occasion with a stunning goal in the 2-0 victory over Birmingham City in the League Cup.
"The guys here (City's medical staff) have been great so far," Hargreaves said.
"I've been here three weeks and you can already see the difference. I knew it was all there. It was just a matter of doing things right."
Reuters
Tags: english-premier, soccer, sport, england, united-kingdom First posted September 23, 2011 20:04:29
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