Owen Hargreaves to be released by Manchester City in summer

Posted Friday, April 27, 2012 by theguardian.com

Owen Hargreaves warms up before Manchester City's FA Cup tie with United, his last game for the club.

Owen Hargreaves will not be offered a new deal by Manchester City at the end of the season, a decision that casts doubt over the midfielder's long-term future in the game in light of the injuries that have wrecked his recent career.

Hargreaves is on a pay-as-you-play contract at City, which ends at the close of the season. The midfielder was signed on a free transfer last summer after Manchester United released him following four injury-plagued years at Old Trafford, the result of a serious knee condition. Before signing for City, Hargreaves considered retiring from football due to the injury that had limited him to 18 league starts at United since joining from Bayern Munich in August 2007.

Hargreaves has featured for City four times this season with only one league appearance – as a 77th-minute substitute against Aston Villa in October – and he has not played senior football since the 3–2 FA Cup defeat to United in January.

He has suffered a series of niggling injuries since joining City, including a calf problem in October, and Hargreaves is not currently involved in full training with Roberto Mancini's first-team squad.

Hargreaves did not feature for City reserves in their 4-1 win over Stoke City on 17 April and his last action for the club was the 6-1 win over Morecambe reserves on 28 March, in which he completed the full 90 minutes.

In February Mancini admitted the club had taken a chance in signing him. "We took a gamble on Owen because he was such a fantastic player. We thought we could try to get him fit in two or three months and then he would be able to play. But it hasn't worked out quite like that. When you have a player who hasn't played for two years and he starts to train every day there are small problems all the time. Problems in the knees or the hamstrings. So Owen hasn't been able to play when we have needed him.

"He may play again this season but he is not ready now. I hope eventually he will be able to play all the time. He deserves to, because he is a really nice guy."

At only 31 Hargreaves could conceivably be able to contemplate a few more seasons at the highest level. He had considered a move to join West Bromwich Albion last summer when Roy Hodgson was keen to sign a player who was England's best performer at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and who has twice won the Champions League – with Bayern and United – as well as the Bundesliga and Premier League. Whether he will decide to play on remains in the balance, with Hargreaves possibly still loth to retire prematurely.

In an interview last summer he signalled his desire not to give in to his injuries when relating what he had told Alex McKechnie, the physiotherapist who helped get him fit again. "I told him: 'I just want to be able to walk away from football when I feel like it, and not have it dictated to me,'" Hargreaves said.