The striker has made an astonishingly rapid recovery after keyhole surgery, and he has not ruled out putting himself in contention for England's Euro 2008 qualifiers against Estonia and Russia later this month.Owen Will Play - Regardless What Allardyce Says!
The striker has made an astonishingly rapid recovery after keyhole surgery, and he has not ruled out putting himself in contention for England's Euro 2008 qualifiers against Estonia and Russia later this month.It is ideed a problem for Allardyce because Owen's two major injuries have come while he was on England duty.
But the striker is after the all-time goalscoring record set by Bobby Charlton and he is on a mission ... just as Alan Shearer was to beat Jackie Milburn's Newcastle record.
The England striker has already started light training and could even play some part in Newcastle's home match against Everton on Sunday.
Which is his intention because Big Sam says he MUST put Newcastle first.
Allardyce insists it will be Newcastle who takes the final decision on Owen, and not the England manager or FA medical staff. But Owen has every right to play for his country if HE decides he wants to.
Allardyce: "A decision like that is taken by me, the club doctor, the head of sports medicine, the senior physiotherapist, the person who reads the scan and the specialist.
"The FA and Steve McClaren are not involved. It's a Newcastle United decision.
"There's no one more qualified than the staff at Newcastle to know what Michael's condition is and if and when we ought to be doing anything about it. My job is to get him fit to play for Newcastle. If he's fit for us, it means he will be fit for England.
"Despite the speculation, Michael couldn't have continued playing. He has a three centimetre tear in the abductor muscle in his groin and he just couldn't have kept going. The tear would have just got bigger had he done."