Manchester, October 02: Sir Alex Ferguson expects Michael Owen to return from his groin injury in time for Manchester United’s Premier League match against Bolton on October 17.
Owen was forced off during the early stages of United’s Champions League win against Wolfsburg on Wednesday and it had been expected the former Liverpool striker would be out for at least three weeks.
But United manager Ferguson admitted on Friday that Owen’s injury is not as bad as first feared.
“We expect him to be available for the next game, it certainly won’t be three weeks,” Ferguson said.
“We are quite pleased. Obviously it is understandable we wanted to take precautions given his past history but we are quite comfortable with the situation.
“He did miss training earlier this week so maybe we should have left him out. But he wanted to play and I wanted him to play. Thankfully it is not a big problem for us.”
Ferguson, whose side host Sunderland in the Premier League on Saturday, received a further boost with the news that Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, who has had a broken finger, and Brazilian defender Rafael Da Silva, recovering from shoulder surgery, are both close to full fitness.
—Agencies