Manchester United- the saga of injuries
In the world of sports, fitness is an essential element that keeps a player going. Any minor injury can bring a scathe to the entire career of the sports person and makes him struggle from the scratch to bring him to the same level of expertise. The gloriole of Manchester United—Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves are the victims of such an affliction.
Owen Hargreaves entered into a four-year contract with Manchester United on the 1st of July ’07 in exchange of an amount of 17 million pounds. It was during the third game of the season that Hargreaves made a startling coming into the court. His first goal was against Fulham and second Olympian one, which won the team esteemed titles of Champions League and Premier League, was against Arsenal. Unfortunately, the second season could not prove to be as lucky for poor Hargreaves who was picked up by a serious of sporadic injuries in the tendons of patellar region. He received a swear blow of his career when he was declared unfit by Sir Alex Ferguson for the leftover season of 2008-09 and was asked to undergo a knee surgery—for poor Hargreaves, the harsh statement by Ferguson meant no more stargazing for gold medal of League Cup. Sigh! However, after experiencing the painful knee surgery twice, Hargreaves rejoined Manchester United on 23rd day of September ’09. The speculation by fans that Hargreaves will once again earn prestigious titles for the Red Devils through his top drawer kicks turned out to be an utter disappointment when Ferguson once against kept him off the game.
In April ’10, however, Ferguson’s unusual lenient behaviour allowed the not so fit Hargreaves to play the penultimate game where the athlete exhibited a cocky performance as per the now-established custom; he injured his knee once again. Doubting over Hargreaves’s fitness, the judicious did not include his name among the list of Manchester United members who were going to be a part of the Premier League squad—the twenty-five names needs to be submitted by the 1st of September. Dr Richard Steadman, one of the most expensive surgeons from United States is acting as his consultant.
Sir Alex Ferguson has another set-back ready for the 31-year-old football champion, Rio Ferdinand which he unravelled during the official press conference in Kansas City that Ferdinand will not be playing in Euro World Cup 2010. No, this time it is not the misconduct; in fact, like his teammate Hargreaves, he also picked up a ligament injury. Manchester United will be doing with the captain Ferdinand in the qualifying matches against Bulgaria on the 3rd day of September and Switzerland on the 7th day of September respectively. On the 24th day of July ’10, Ferdinand accidentally bumped into a fellow player Emile Heskey in Rustenburg during the very first training session of Manchester United for FIFA World Cup. It was earlier predicted by the physicians that he will be fit for the game by the 16th day of August ’10 but after he underwent surgery of the displaced knee, the same news was postponed till end of September.
Sir Alex Ferguson has also announced the good news that Ferdinand will make a comeback on 26th day of September, which means he is hardly a month away from fitness. In an exclusive interview, Ferdinand told that his knee is very much back in it place; it doesn’t even hurt anymore. He further told that he has started doing a lot of running, jogging and other physical exercises and been in rehab for few days. Ferdinand is confident that he will land on the ground with the very supportive team United, in the last few days of September and he is really excited about the come back.
The youngest member of Manchester United, 22-year-old Anderson was also a subject of Ferguson’s speech who according to him, would be seen in kicking form in the falling season. Anderson, who also injured his knee a couple of months ago, has finally recovered and couldn’t wait to make a dive in the game.
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