Owen Hargreaves has been ruled out of United's final Asia Tour game against Guangzhou Pharmaceuticals on Friday after failing to overcome tendonitis in his knee.
The problem has prevented him from taking part in a full training session in the Far East.
With the start of the season less than two weeks away and Paul Scholes also on the sidelines, Sir Alex Ferguson will be keen to get his new signing back to fitness.
"Hargreaves won't be playing at all on the tour," said Ferguson. "It's just tendonitis. It's becoming an irritant rather than a big problem.
"It's something we're going to have to do something about - not an operation, but we may have to give him an injection at some time."
CKeer
Aww.. I wanna see how he gel with the rest of the team. Never mind, there's always a next time.