Newcastle will nurse Michael Owen through his current hernia
problems for as long as possible but the striker is still expected to
require an operation at some point this season on his groin area.
The Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce has insisted that substituting Owen
after 55 minutes of Monday's 1-0 defeat to Derby County was just "precautionary"
- however, his problems are not expected to just go away. Owen may yet
play in Sunday's game against West Ham but he will require treatment at
some point.
As revealed in yesterday's Independent, the striker is still a doubt for
England's two crucial Euro 2008 qualifiers against Estonia on 13 October
and Russia in Moscow four days' later. The question remains how long he
can continue to play with the injury without undergoing the fairly simple
procedure that alleviates the hernia problem.
Current medical techniques mean that hernia sufferers can - in the best
case scenario - return to action within three weeks of the operation.
However, in the meantime the condition can be alleviated with anti-inflammatory
drugs. The usual advice is that at some point the hernia has to be dealt
with through surgery.
Owen has struggled with injuries over the two seasons previous to this
one. He missed four months with a broken metatarsal - sustained against
Tottenham on New Year's Eve 2005 - in the second half of the 2005-2006
season. Then against Sweden at the World Cup in June he ruptured a cruciate
ligament and did not play at all last season until April.
After scoring twice against Russia last week, Owen is clearly a central
part of Steve McClaren's plans and he would be loath for the striker to
have any kind of operation which would - at the very least - rule him
out of the two matches next month. England need to beat Estonia at Wembley
and secure a point against Russia at the Luzhniki stadium to ensure that
a draw against Croatia in November will see them qualify for Euro 2008.
On Saturday, McClaren lost Emile Heskey for two months after the Wigan
striker sustained a broken metatarsal. However, Wayne Rooney is expected
to play some part tonight for Manchester United against Sporting Lisbon
for the first time since 12 August when he sustained a hairline fracture
to his left foot in the season's opening game against Reading.
,
19 September 2007
Russian ladies dream about happy marriage.
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