Owen Hargreaves has been ruled out for the rest of the season. The England midfielder travelled to Colorado for a meeting with renowned surgeon Dr Richard Steadman after being plagued by a tendinitis problem for almost two years.

And Manchester United have confirmed Hargreaves has had surgery on his right knee and will have a further operation on his left knee in a fortnight, ruling him out for the remainder of the campaign.

Although Hargreaves played in May's Champions League Final triumph over Chelsea in Moscow, it proved to be a rare high spot for the England midfielder, who has made just 37 appearances for the Old Trafford outfit.

Ruled out of his first pre-season campaign following his 2007 move from Bayern Munich, the 27-year-old sat out another this summer.

He has been restricted to just three outings this term, one of them an effective performance against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Hargreaves has not played a competitive game for England since March 2007 and has become increasingly frustrated at a problem that would not go away.

Ferguson confirmed on Friday that Hargreaves had recently seen specialists in London and Sweden without being able to get the injury resolved, sparking fears his career might be in jeopardy.

Those doubts will not go away until Hargreaves has returned to action on a full-time basis.

However, in Steadman, the Calgary-born star knows he is in safe hands, even if most of his football-related work has been treating cruciate knee ligament injuries.

Hargreaves should have some company too as former United star Ruud van Nistelrooy has flown to see Steadman — the man who performed his own cruciate operation — for treatment on a knee injury that has recently surfaced.