Fergie did not want Hargreeves in Africa
Owen Hargreaves the unfortunate England midfielder who has been injured for almost 2 years now, was part of England Manager Capello’s plans for the upcoming world cup in South Africa. However, due to the persuasion of Manchester United’s Manager Sir Alex Ferguson, Capello decided to go the other way, Ferguson met up with the Italian at the league managers association dinner in London, and on getting to know that Capello was planning on taking Hargreaves with the English squad to Austria, Fergie told him that the midfielder is by no means ready for an England call up.
Ferguson said, “Owen Hargreaves has not had enough football, you couldn’t possibly have picked him and that was always straight forward,” Hargreaves, who has not played regular competitive football for 18 months, has been out of action following a knee injury but it is believed that Capello was keen on taking him to the training camp in Idning as a wild card.
It surely is a testament to the influence Ferguson has in English football, also the amount of respect Capello has for the Scot’s opinion. Earlier in November 2008, Capello insisted that the national team medical staff examine Steven Gerrard’s scans despite his club Liverpool insisting that he is not fit enough to play for England, which was signal of intent from Capello that he will have things his way, as far as club and country row is concerned, but this time he has trusted the old veteran Ferguson’s judgement.
It was reported in English press that Hargreaves was unhappy and rushed out of Old Trafford, after he was not included in the squad to take on Stoke city on the last day of the season, which he believed was his last chance to prove his worth to the Italian manager for the English side. The midfielder was seen driving away in his car 50 minutes from kick-off, but united claim it was due to illness and nothing else.
Apart from Hargreaves, the national team’s medical team have been less then convinced with the reports that they have been getting regarding player fitness from old Trafford. And plan to perform their own assessments after landing in Austria for the camp.
Gareth Barry who was recently injured has left Capello short on central midfielders, Scott Parker form West Has earned a call up, but Capello believes it was worth seeing if Hargreaves was up for it, rather than giving a call up to Jermain Jenas and Jamie Bullard.
The Italian met with his team earlier this week, and after some lengthy discussion it was finally decided that Hargreaves will not be included in the squad, and instead it will be Gareth Barry who will be in the side as a wild card, after all but ruling the midfielder out a day earlier.
And the fact that the final assessment of his ankle Ligament damage was moved from 30th of May to 24th, which gives Cepello more time to asses if Barry is actually up for it.
The squad for England leaves for Austria on Monday, they will play Mexico on 24th of this month in a friendly when they comeback from the camp, and later Japan on 30th. The announcement of the final 23-man squad for the world cup is expected on June 1st.
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