INJURY FORCES OWEN OUT

Newcastle striker Michael Owen is out of Saturday's pre-season friendly at Carlisle after picking up a thigh injury in training.

The 27-year-old picked up a minor injury in shooting practice and will miss the trip to Brunton Park, and probably Celtic's visit to Tyneside on Thursday evening.

However, manager Sam Allardyce does not expect the England international to be out of action for any more than 10 days.

He said: "It's a slight thigh injury he picked up doing a little shooting exercise, so we are taking a precautionary measure and leaving him out of Saturday's game.

"Hopefully, it will be no more than a week or 10 days and he should be back in training again.

"It may actually be a little early for the Celtic match, but Juventus on the Sunday is one we hope he can be fit for."

Allardyce has backed Owen to fire Newcastle back up the Barclays Premier League table and remind English football of his potency.

The striker has managed only 14 competitive appearances - and seven goals - for the Magpies in the two years since his £17million switch from Real Madrid because of injury.

However, Allardyce has few doubts that when fully fit, Owen remains one of the deadliest forwards in the country and is confident Newcastle will reap the benefits next season.

He said: "There's no doubt about that. We would like Michael to stay fit for the whole of a season in the Premier League and be chasing the leading goalscorers.

"One would hope when we are drawing to a close at the end of next season, he is within the top three or four leading goalscorers in the Premier League - that would mean we have had a relatively good season.

"If that's the case, there needs to be some goals shared out from other areas to promote the goals scored situation, and if we get right the clean sheet scenario, then a lot of Michael's goals could hopefully bring us three points.

"If that's the case, we could escalate a little further forward in the Premier League.

"But we cannot expect too much, too soon."

Taken from =football365=