There was good news and bad news for Manchester United today.

The good – Long term absentee Owen Hargreaves has been “pencilled in” to play in next Thursday’s reserves game against Manchester City.

The bad – Striker Michael Owen has been ruled out for the rest of the season after injuring his hamstring at Wembley during the Carling Cup final.

Hargreaves nightmare has lasted 18 months, and after two operations and hundreds of hours of rehabilitation behind him he is said to be almost ready to make his comeback.

The news will please not only Sir Alex Ferguson, but also national team manager Fabio Capello, but only if the Canadian born midfielder is playing regularly for Manchester United will he make it into Capello’s England World Cup squad.

Michael Owen will almost certainly be missing from the plane to South Africa this Summer and will undergo surgery on the injury he picked up last week.

Sir Alex was not too happy with the state of the Wembley pitch, which he believes contributed to the injury.

The pitch has been criticized by several players after the Carling Cup final and was again shown to be in shocking during England’s friendly match with Egypt.

“It is (Owen’s injury) more serious than we thought. I think the heavy pitch at Wembley played some part, but it’s also bad luck,” said the United boss.

The combined stories of the two Owen’s paint a pretty accurate picture of Manchester United’d season thus far. It is one of constant injury woes where one player regains fitness and another pulls a hamstring or a calf.

Ferguson will be hoping he can shake off the injury curse as the business end of the season starts to heat up as his side try to reel in Chelsea at the top of the league.