There were no meaty challenges during United's reserve-team encounter with Burnley, or many trademark bursts of acceleration. But just to get through 45 minutes of football after 18 months on the sidelines was a welcome relief for the 29-year-old. Understandably, Hargreaves did not push his body too hard. The midfielder knows there will be plenty of opportunity to do that. For now he will be happy to get some minutes under his belt after so long out, get himself back into a competitive environment again and know there are more matches to look forward to, possibly at Burnley in the return fixture next week. Since his last first-team outing, against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in September 2008, the Calgary-born midfielder has had major surgery on both knees to try and cure a long-standing tendinitis problem that first arose during his Bayern Munich days. "I didn't have the same quality muscle as before," Hargreaves told the Daily Telegraph. "Instead of muscles taking the shock absorption, my tendon was. "It wasn't dealt with the way it should have been initially. "I saw so-called specialists who said 'this is what you need and you will have absolutely no reaction' and I had a massive reaction. "You like to think you will get the best advice possible but that is not always possible." After working extensively on his rehabilitation in Colorado under the guidance of world-renowned knee specialist Dr Richard Steadman, Hargreaves returned to United's Carrington training complex in September. "Steadman was fantastic," Hargreaves told the Daily Telegraph. "I trusted his expertise. I didn't want to be in a training environment with the other players when they were going out to train and I was stuck inside for months and months. "I didn't think I would receive the amount of attention I needed. The healthy players are the focus."
