Our medical staff did their best for Hargreaves, says Ferguson

There are few partings at Manchester United that are painless. David Beckham was consigned to the icy half-life of a substitute. Roy Keane was sacked and even Bryan Robson was dropped for what would have been his farewell game, the 1994 FA Cup final. None has been quite as painful as Owen Hargreaves', though.

Manchester United are not a club that issues statements when a former player comments on their time at Old Trafford. However, although Hargreaves stressed that his remarks were not motivated by bitterness, they have drawn blood. His allegations that United treated his knee injury in a way that worsened his condition and that the club knew he was unfit before his final, disastrous match that saw him break down after five minutes against Wolves were yesterday emphatically denied.

In their statement, United said: "The club gave him the best possible care for three years and is as disappointed as anyone he was not able to play a part in the team's success at that time. It has shared all the medical records with Manchester City and is comfortable with the actions taken by its medical staff at each step of his many attempts at rehabilitation. United does not acknowledge any validity in the comments Owen is alleged to have made. Manchester United has some of the best medical staff in world sport, who have made a significant contribution to United's on-pitch success in recent seasons."

The club felt unable to answer Hargreaves' accusations point by point as that might have been construed as a breach of patient confidentiality. When Sir Alex Ferguson was asked about Hargreaves directly yesterday, the United manager was initially reluctant to go into details before embarking on a passionate defence of his medical team.

"I am not going into that because it's not worth it," he said. "It is absolutely not worth it. I have got a great medical staff. Do you think Alex Ferguson would have a bad medical staff? Do you think I would allow that? Absolutely no chance. The club has to be successful and they have to have the best people in the best positions to be successful and that is what we have got. We have been trying to analyse all the stuff he came out with. As far as I am concerned, my medical staff are one of the reasons why Manchester United have been so successful over the last few years."

'It was like a scene from Zulu at Leeds'

Sir Alex Ferguson said the sight of the Manchester United team hotel besieged by Leeds fans was "like something out of Zulu".

Should they play at Elland Road again, United will not be using a city centre hotel as they did before Tuesday night's 3-0 win in the Carling Cup which was marred by 24 arrests.

While Leeds supporters indulged in their familiar, tasteless reference to the Munich Disaster, there was one banner in the away end that said: "Istanbul", a reference to the two Yorkshire fans killed before a Champions League fixture with Galatasaray in 2000.

Ferguson said the atmosphere around the team hotel before kick-off was "frightening".

"We had a lot of problems outside the hotel," he said. "I don't know how many hundreds of them there were. It was like something out of the film Zulu. But the police were fantastic."