Manchester United's Owen Hargreaves has pulled out of Friday night's UEFA Super Cup encounter with Zenit St Petersburg.

His withdrawal came after suffering a recurrence of his long-standing knee injury in training.

He was due to make a 45-minute appearance in Monaco and there had been some speculation Hargreaves could even find his way into Fabio Capello's squad for next month's World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Croatia despite Sir Alex Ferguson rejecting the theory on Thursday.

But any hope of Hargreaves donning the Three Lions again has now been squashed, with the midfielder missing the Zenit game on Friday.

The extent of the 27-year-old's problem is not clear but his absence is a blow given Michael Carrick is also out with an ankle injury.

Hargreaves will certainly be frustrated as he has missed United's entire pre-season so far.

The former Bayern Munich man has had injections to ease a tendinitis problem that first surfaced last summer, just after his move to Old Trafford.

Having sat out United's pre-season tour to South Africa, it was thought Hargreaves would be available for United's early season games.

That may still be the case given the Red Devils are not in action again until they visit Liverpool on September 13 but there are bound to be concerns over the £18million man's long-term availability.