Hargreaves's Manchester United Career Could Be Over

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson fears injury-plagued midfielder Owen Hargreaves may never play for the club again.

Hargreaves has been beset by a horrific run of injuries since moving to Old Trafford from Bayern Munich in 2007.

Ferguson said: "His contract is up at the end of the season. I don't know what is going to happen."

The England international has managed only 39 appearances during nearly four seasons at United.

Ferguson believes Hargreaves's latest setback, a shoulder injury, has extinguished any hope that the player may return to first-team action this season.

The only appearance the 30-year-old has made this campaign was a surprise start in the Premier League match at home to Wolves on 6 November but his first start for two years lasted only six minutes before he limped off with a hamstring injury.

Asked if there was any chance the £17m signing would feature again this season, Ferguson stated: "I don't see it at all.

"It is a shoulder injury. It has just brought his season to an end. He has just carried bad luck all the time he has been here. I am pretty sure he won't be playing this season."

With Hargreaves's injury problems showing little sign of abating, the Old Trafford boss faces a decision this summer on whether to offer a new deal to a player who has not completed 90 minutes of football since September 2008.

"His contract is up at the end of the season but I don't know what is going to happen," commented Ferguson.

"[United chief executive] David Gill had a discussion with the boy last week. But no more than that. We have to make a decision."

Hargreaves enjoyed a successful debut season with United, helping the club to the Premier League crown and playing in the Champions League final against Chelsea in 2008. He scored in the penalty shoot-out as Ferguson's men triumphed in Moscow.

But he had played with tendonitis in both knees, which resurfaced in the summer of 2008 and restricted the Canadian-born player to two league appearances.

Hargreaves continued to be dogged by pain and visited a surgeon in America to try to solve the problem.

It was a similar story last season when he appeared just once in the first-team, as a 93rd-minute substitute against Sunderland in May 2010.