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Manchester United send Park to US for surgery
MANCHESTER, England (AFP) - Manchester United have sent Park Ji-Sung to the United States for knee surgery to be carried out by the specialist who saved the careers of Alan Shearer and Michael Owen.
Park is one of a number of Sir Alex Ferguson's squad who have been forced onto the sidelines as the club's treble bid reaches its climax.
But while the manager is optimistic about an imminent return of Louis Saha, Nemaja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, he concedes the Korean winger's injury will rule out any chance of a return this season.
Park suffered the knee injury in the final minute of United's victory over Blackburn Rovers on April 1 and the club has now been forced to enlist the help of world renowned surgeon Dr Richard Steadman in a bid to diagnose the full extent of the problem.
Ferguson hopes that Park's transatlantic visit will increase the possibility of the player making an early return at the start of next season.
"There's no improvement in his knee injury and we've sent him to see some other specialists but we now just have to get him to the best," Ferguson said.
"There was an option to send him to Sweden or America and we decided to send him to the States to see Richard Steadman in Colorado.
"There was no clear reason for the injury and we couldn't get to the bottom of it. So we decided we should send him to the best in the world."
Saha will travel with Ferguson's squad to Everton this weekend after recovering from a niggling hamstring problem and will be named among the substitutes if he shows no reaction to training.
Vidic and Ferdinand will not make the trip to Goodison Park although Ferguson is hopeful the centre-back pair will be back in contention for next Wednesday's Champions League semi-final second leg against AC Milan.
Vidic is recovering from a broken collar bone while Ferdinand has been troubled by a groin strain but Ferguson said: "Nemanja is doing great training now and he goes for his scan on Monday and if that shows that he is clear then it is decision time because it would be a risk to play him in Milan. It will depend on who we have available after Everton.
"Rio won't play tomorrow but hopefully he will be ready for Wednesday."
Skipper Gary Neville remains a major concern with his ankle injury responding slowly to treatment although Ferguson has not yet written off the defender's season.
"There is an improvement," he added. "We have put a boot on his foot. I don't know whether we have done too much with him but there was a bit of swelling last week. We just have to map out the right road of recovery for him.
"But I think we have the freshness of (Patrice) Evra back in which is good. I left Alan Smith out on Tuesday so he is fresh for tomorrow.
"Louis Saha will be travelling with us, he could be on the bench. Hopefully Vidic and Rio Ferdinand are getting better and will give me a bit of freshness that we need. And hopefully we will have a reasonable squad for the final push."
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