How Hard Is It To Pass A Manchester United Medical?

9 October 09 by Bill

Hargreaves Injured As long as you can walk, perhaps even with a limp, and have played football at the highest level, it seems a medical at Manchester United is a breeze.

Owen Hargreaves spoke in depth about his rehabilitation after surgery on both knees and gave an insight into how United’s medical team assess the fitness of a player.

Hargreaves has a history of leg injuries; muscle injuries in particular. In 2002, he was sidelined on two occasions with thigh and calf injuries and further complications with his thigh led to a leave of absence in 2003.

In 2006, Hargreaves broke his leg and when he returned to action, believes his muscle was weak, and from that moment on, an even longer layoff was inevitable. During a training session, his “knee almost locked” and following some rest, he signed for us.

“After I broke my leg at Bayern they put me in a cast” said Hargreaves. “The muscle deteriorates being in that and when I came out of it after six weeks and started to play again I don’t think my muscle was strong enough.

“All the force, instead of going through the muscle went through the tendon. I had a slight twinge in my knee, we did some sprint training one day, something just went, and I didn’t know what it was.

“My knee almost locked and I couldn’t do anything. I was told to rest and I did. Then the transfer to United went through.”

Dr Steadman, a 72 year old knee specialist with 35 years experience, performed the recent surgery on Hargreaves and when he first diagnosed the injury, informed the midfielder he had one of the worst injuries he had ever seen.

“When I got to the Vail clinic he said ‘I have rarely ever seen a tendon look like that in my 35 years of working’.

“It was hard to take because this was coming from a guy who was 72 years old and had seen a lot of knees!”

Granted, the injury had probably gotten worse in his one season with us, but the damage was there. Despite that, Hargreaves still passed his medical, as he goes on to explain.

“I had the medical here and they could see I had some slight trouble but it was figured with time it would get better.”

Now I’m no doctor, but to me, that seems pretty dire decision making. £18 million left United’s coffers in order to acquire the services of a crocked footballer. Wages have pushed that outlay to well over £20 million so that’s a pretty expensive decision to boot.

This isn’t the first time Ferguson has signed a player of questionable health. United signed Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2001 for the princely sum of £19 million.

Only a season earlier, a deal to bring the Dutchman to the club had fallen through due to concerns regarding his knee. Shortly afterwards, van Nistelrooy suffered a cruciate injury that sidelined him for 10 months.

Of course, van Nistelrooy turned out to be a fantastic signing for us, perhaps that’s what swung the medical in Hargreaves’ favour. He does have all the characteristics of a great footballer afterall and exactly what we need; albeit with dodgy knees.

It also brings into question the real fitness of Michael Owen. The injury plagued striker signed for United on a free in the summer and is even on a performance related pay structure. If the club are prepared to pay upwards of £20 million and gamble on the fitness of a player, imagine what they’d take for nothing?

Owen’s already had his first groin complaint of the season and I suspect they’ll be a few more by the end of the campaign. The question is, will he score more goals than he suffers injuries? If the answer turns out to be yes, the gamble payed off.