Paul Scholes has revealed that ex-boss Sir Alex Ferguson made one former Manchester United star play with a hamstring injury vs Wolves.
Scholes discussed the incident during the latest episode of The Overlap when discussing the relationship between players and physios.
The Red Devils legend brought up former England international Owen Hargreaves, who was often prone to injury during his spell at Old Trafford.
Scholes claims former Man Utd manager Ferguson became overly frustrated with Hargreaves during the 2010/11 campaign as they prepared for a match against Arsenal.
After missing the start of the 10/11 season, Hargreaves made his first Premier League appearance of the campaign against Wolves in November.
Hargreaves felt his hamstring during the warm-up, but an “angry” Ferguson made him play and he was forced off after around ten minutes.
“I remember, we had Owen Hargreaves who was unfortunately injured a lot, and the manager eventually became frustrated because we couldn’t get him back,” Scholes revealed on The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet.
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“I remember one game where we were playing Arsenal at home, Owen had been out for some time and was nearly back, and he went out for the warmup and came in feeling his hamstring and you could just see the anger and frustration in the manager’s face.
“He said, ‘You’re playing,’ and that was it. It didn’t end well – within 15 minutes, Owen had to come off and was out for a long time after that – there has to be frustration from managers as well.”
This proved Hargreaves’ only Premier League appearance of the season. At the time, Ferguson claimed Man Utd “took a chance” on the injury-prone midfielder.
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He said: “We were at the stage where we knew Owen’s knee was okay,’ Ferguson said at the time. ‘His training performances for eight or nine days previously had been terrific.
“He had done really well, which is why we took the chance. But maybe the tension in the build-up for the lad was too much and he suffered because of it.”
Scholes has also admitted that he must have been a “pain in the a*** for the physios”.
“I think that mentality is a big thing when people get injured,” Scholes said. “Say someone does their hamstring and the physio says its eight weeks, the first thing I wanted to know was what I had done, how long I’d be out, then my mentality switched to ‘Right, I’m going to beat it.
“I could imagine that I was a pain in the a*** for the physios because I was always going to the physio everyday saying, ‘What am I doing today? Can I step up to the bike? When am I going outside?’
“I don’t see that in many players these days. Once you say twelve weeks hamstring that’s it, they’re taking twelve weeks and they’re not coming back before that.”
