MONTREAL - It would take a fan with the hardest of hearts to begrudge Canadian soccer player Owen Hargreaves a successful comeback.
Hargreaves, 30, born and brought up in Calgary, played for 57 minutes last week for Manchester City in a Carling Cup game against Birmingham. He scored a goal, but the fact he lasted almost an hour of action without limping off was the real story. After all, the midfielder has undergone two knee operations and hardly played for three seasons because of persistent tendinitis in both joints.
Hargreaves was a much mooted signing for Manchester United after being generally acclaimed as England's best player at the World Cup in 2006 (he elected to play internationally for England, for which he qualifies through his father, rather than Canada). United, which had pursued Hargreaves for a couple of seasons, paid Bayern Munich, the team he joined as a teenager from Canada, about $48 million Canadian.
But it's when Hargreaves joined United that his troubles began. He played one full season, but then his appearances became sporadic as the knee problems worsened. Last season, he made one appearance, starting a Premier League game against Wolverhampton in November and lasting only five minutes before coming off with a hamstring problem. Hargreaves never played another minute. In the 26 months preceding the Wolverhampton game, he played one minute of soccer for United.
In four seasons, Hargreaves made 39 appearances for Man U. United released him in the summer and he was a shock signing for city rival Man City late in the transfer period. If he's able to play a full role, it would rank as one of the steals of the season.
Hargreaves insists his problems were worsened by the medical treatment he received at United, describing himself as "a guinea pig" for a treatment known as prolotherapy. The treatment involved injecting glucose into injured ligaments to stimulate the growth of new fibres.
Prolotherapy is thought to work by tricking the inflamed, painful tissue into generating new healthy tissue by injecting irritants or "harmless" substances such as sugar, cod liver oil or glycerine into the affected tendons or joints. The strengthened tissues should no longer send pain signals to the brain. This experimental treatment is used by a minority of doctors as the research evidence is mixed. There are reports United defender Rio Ferdinand, who has persistent back problems, is receiving the same therapy.
Hargreaves said last week he had sought medical opinion since leaving United that had told him the injections were the wrong treatment and side effects had made his knee tensions "significantly worse."
"They (United's medical staff) said (prolotherapy treatment) would help and that I wouldn't have any side effects from the injections," Hargreaves said. "That obviously wasn't the case, and if I'd known I could have had a reaction like that I wouldn't have done it. It's my career. I'm in it. I'm trying to get all this information. I'm hearing about tendons and before I didn't know its real function. It was a s--- position to be in."
Asked if he felt he had received medical opinion that confirmed his view that prolotherapy was not the right treatment, Hargreaves said: "Absolutely, yes. Absolutely. With my tendon injury, I've had to be a guinea pig for a lot of these treatments.
"When you're left to try and make something of a difficult situation – basically I wanted to play, everyone wanted me to play, so it's not really an option to say 'sit it out and rest for six months.' With hindsight, it's a lot easier. Yep, probably the injections I had, I should probably not have had."
Hargreaves did admit that the course of treatment was embarked upon at a time when other solutions had failed. After playing for England against the United States in May 2008, Hargreaves prepared for an early return to United a week ahead of the 2008-09 preseason to embark on the treatment.
"I received some injections, and after that my tendon was never the same," he said. "After the injections, I tried to get back on my feet and they said my tendon was good, but it felt like I was made out of glass. That obviously had a huge impact."
After first refusing comment, United responded a day later to Hargreaves's attacks, predictably praising its medical team, although stopping short of saying the prolotherapy injections helped.
A statement from the club read: "Manchester United is disappointed with Owen's remarks. The club gave him the best possible care for three years and is as disappointed as anyone he was not able to play a part in the team's success at that time. It has shared all the medical records with Manchester City and is comfortable with the actions taken by its medical staff at each step of his many attempts at rehabilitation.
"United does not acknowledge any validity in the comments Owen is alleged to have made. Manchester United has some of the best sports medical staff in world sport, who have made a significant contribution to United's on-pitch success in recent seasons."
Hargreaves, you can be sure, would disagree.
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