Roeder faces losing Owen for season

Gordon Tynan
Thursday 17 August 2006 19:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder admitted yesterday that the injured striker Michael Owen may not play at all this season.

Owen, 26, ruptured his anterior cruciate knee ligament in England's 2-2 draw against Sweden at the World Cup finals and is set to have an operation.

"I don't know if he'll play again this season," Roeder said. "He's getting the best possible treatment and will have the best surgeon in the world operating on him.

"Michael has an injury that will take a fair bit of time to repair. If we put a date on it and we say that he'll be back by next March, and then he's not fit, then it will cause more problems."

Owen's cruciate ligament surgery had been delayed until September because he required an operation to repair cartilage damage on his injured right knee in July. He missed most of the second half of last season with a broken foot.

The former Newcastle forward Les Ferdinand believes that, with Owen out, the club will struggle to fill the gap left by Alan Shearer, who retired in April."It's very difficult to replace Alan Shearer and losing Michael is a huge blow," he said. "[Newcastle] need to bring someone in to support Shola Ameobi and Albert Luque."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in