New blow as United lose Park for a year

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South Korean star Park has flown to America for an appointment with renowned knee surgeon Dr Richard Steadman and will be operated on in the coming days.

Scroll down to read more:

Missing: United have had to deal without Park's talents

The exact prognosis will not be known until Colorado-based Dr Steadman has explored the full extent of the midfielder's ligament damage.

Park had enjoyed a fruitful season at Old Trafford until suffering his injury last month.

He has not played since the 4-1 home win against Blackburn on March 31 and it is feared he may not be back in action for months.

United received a boost ahead of next week's Champions League semi-final, second leg with news that injured AC Milan lynchpin Gennaro Gattuso is struggling to make the game.

But the view from within their own squad was depressingly familiar.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson plans to buy Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich in the summer — an £18m deal has already been agreed in principle — but will miss Park's versatility and in particular the options he provides on the right From Back Page side.

Ferguson is still sweating on defender Rio Ferdinand's fitness ahead of next week's game in Milan, where United will defend a 3-2 lead.

But he will be encouraged to hear Milan's defensive midfielder Gattuso speaking in such negative terms about his chances of recovering from the foot injury he picked up at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

Gattuso said: "For me the match at San Siro is as important as the final of the World Cup. I really want to play and at the moment I am only thinking about my physical recuperation.

"But deep down I know it is not going to be easy to recover. At the moment I am struggling. But I want to fight to help my team-mates if I can.

"My exit from Old Trafford was terrible, but it really was impossible to play on after receiving the injury to my foot. It was a bad night.

"United played well in the second half, but perhaps a draw would have been the right result."