Hargreaves left behind as United set off for pre-season tour of Africa

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Staying home: Owen Hargreaves

Hargreaves’ first season after his £17million move from Bayern Munichwas blighted by a knee problem and the England midfielder has admitted it is an injury he may never shake off.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed last night that tendinitis had struck again, ruling Hargreaves out of matches in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.

Ferguson said: ‘It was apparent as soon as he came back to training. It is the same as last year.

‘Maybe re-starting training on the firmish grounds brings it on or maybe it is just an inherent problem. We are trying to sort it out with injections. That’s what we did last November and it worked.

‘Hopefully by the time we come back from South Africa he should be OK. Owen is not written off for the start of the season.’

Despite Ferguson’s optimism, the injury recurrence is a huge blow to Hargreaves, who made just 16 League appearances last season.

He remains at home with the United players who featured in Euro 2008 and Louis Saha, who has suffered yet another knee injury.

United begin their three-match tour programme against Kaizer Chiefs in Cape Town tomorrow.

Ferguson confirmed yesterday that United had bid for Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov. He said: ‘We’ve made a bid for a player who would enhance us a great deal.’