OH included

By Chris,
September 3 2009

Injury-hit Owen Hargreaves has been included in Manchester United’s Champions League squad for this season’s group stages. The midfielder's inclusion suggests that Sir Alex is confident the player will play some part in United’s European encounters with Beskitas, Spartak Moscow and Wolfsburg.

United's 2009/2010 European campaign gets underway in Turkey on September 15th.

However, Hargreaves is not due back to Old Trafford until 23rd September where it is hoped he will complete his rehabilitation from surgery on both knees.

The player's inclusion in the squad suggests that Sir Alex is hopeful that the player will have fully recovered in time to play some part in United's group stage games this season.

The 28-year-old has been out of action since last September and is reaching the end of a lengthy recovery programme from surgery in the United States.

United registered their 25-man squad with Uefa earlier in the week. The club were able to register an extra ten players under rules which permit any player born on or after 1 January 1988, who has been eligible to play for the club for two years, to be registered outside of the squad limit

The full squad is as follows:

Goalkeepers: Edwin van der Sar, Ben Foster, Tomasz Kuszczak, Ron-Robert Zieler*, Ben Amos*

Defenders: Gary Neville, Partice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Wesley Brown, Nemanja Vidic, Fabio da Silva, Rafael da Silva, John O'Shea, Jonny Evans*, Corry Evans*, Craig Cathcart*, James Chester*

Midfielders: Owen Hargreaves, Ryan Giggs, Ji-Sung Park, Michael Carrick, Nani, Scholes, Darren Fletcher, Antonio Valencia, Gabriel Obertan, Darron Gibson, Anderson*, Sam Hewson*, David Gray*

Forwards: Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney, Kiko Macheda, Danny Welbeck*

* = additional players registered under aforementioned rule.