Injured Hargreaves to miss England's Euro qualifiers

MANCHESTER, Oct 2 (Reuters) Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves will miss England's European Championship qualifiers against Estonia and Russia this month.

He will be out of action for up to four weeks after having an injection to clear up a knee injury, his club manager Alex Ferguson told reporters today.

The treatment to cure a tendonitis problem means Hargreaves will miss England's Group E matches at home to Estonia on October 13 and away to Russia four days later.

''Owen Hargreaves has had an injection in his knee and will be out for three or four weeks,'' said Ferguson.

''That was an option we had from the very start if it surfaced again. He felt it (the problem) in training so we decided to do something immediately.'' Hargreaves was troubled by the injury at the start of the season and did not play his first game for United following his signing from Bayern Munich until August 19.

However, the 26-year-old managed just three games before sustaining a thigh injury in training with England ahead of their game against Israel on September 8.

Hargreaves recovered from that problem and was expected to be back in United's squad for Tuesday's Champions League game against AS Roma before the tendonitis problem returned.

Reuters SBA VP0342