So far, Hargreaves, an £18m summer signing from Bayern Munich, has not managed to join in a full training session because of tendinitis in his knee.

As long as a week ago, Ferguson expressed doubt as to whether the 26-year-old England international would feature on tour – and now the Scot has confirmed he will definitely miss out.

“Hargreaves won’t be playing at all on the tour,” said Ferguson.

“It’s just tendinitis. 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.”

While Hargreaves is still unsure exactly when he will be able to play, there was better news about Paul Scholes – who was forced to fly home for tests on a knee injury he picked up in last week’s win over FC Seoul.

The former England star has now received a more precise diagnosis, with Ferguson confirming Scholes will be missing for three weeks – a timescale which rules him out of the Premier League champions’ opening games against Reading and Portsmouth but should leave him free for the Manchester derby at Eastlands on August 19.

Meanwhile, Ferguson has insisted he is not concerned at the attention being heaped on young winger Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portugal international won a stack of player of the year awards last season and has been besieged virtually every time he has stepped out of United’s team hotel on their two-week trip to Asia.

“At the moment there’s absolutely no sign that the boy will be wasted by it [the attention],” he said.

“When people ask to interview him it doesn’t worry me too much. He can cope.”

Ronaldo’s only realistic rival for the prestigious world player of the year crown would appear to be AC Milan’s brilliant Brazilian Kaka. But Ferguson hopes the 22-year-old, who recently extended his United contract to 2012, will get the nod.

“I hope he wins it,” said Ferguson.

“Last season there was a fantastic improvement in Cristiano in terms of his goalscoring.

“To get 23 goals as a wide player is incredible. I know there were some penalties in there, maybe four or five – but to get something like 18 goals from open play as a wide player, there’s not many players who can do that. ”

Ferguson has also backed Jose Mourinho’s decision to make himself slightly less high profile this season.

The Chelsea boss seemed to be in the headlines for all the wrong reasons far too often last term.

However, he has now decided to court rather less publicity – and Ferguson, who met many of Mourinho’s jibes head on, believes it is a wise move.

“It’s probably a good thing, because he was getting himself into all sorts of difficulties,” said Ferguson.

“I think he’s realised that everything he tries is just for a reason and to suit himself.

“Maybe he has realised that everyone has cottoned on to that, and that it doesn’t have the same impact. They’re not stupid.

“He’s obviously not relished the bad publicity. He has obviously learned his lesson a little bit. Everybody does.

“I do like him. He came over and brought a bit of colour. He did really well on the publicity side in his first year because he was brash, young and making all his comments – and he endeared himself to a lot of people.”