Allardyce allays Owen fears

England striker taken off as precaution

By Stephen Bramley   Last updated: 18th September 2007   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Allardyce allays Owen fears

Owen: Limps off

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Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce insists Michael Owen is not injured and will be fit to face West Ham on Sunday.

The England striker was substituted after 55 minutes in Monday's 1-0 Premier League defeat at Derby.

Allardyce says Owen had complained of a groin injury during the interval so he was taken off purely as a precaution.

Precaution

The Magpies boss said: "He felt his groin at half-time. I gave him the opportunity to go back on because he wanted to but I didn't want to risk him for longer than five or 10 minutes and we took him off as a precaution."

But Allardyce added that Owen would return for Sunday's clash with The Hammers at St James' Park: "Yes. We need him to to be fit because we have too many injured as it is."

Allardyce admitted he was frustrated by his side's performance at Pride Park after Derby's Kenny Miller struck the only goal of the game on his debut.

He also was far from happy with the fixture schedule which sees the injury-hit Magpies face West Ham, Arsenal and Manchester City in quick succession.

"We need to get our whole squad together," he added.

"But we have a six-day, three-game week coming up. We've been dealt a blow by the Premier League because of the Carling Cup match.

Moan

"We've been told we have to play on Tuesday night after playing West Ham on

Sunday so it's my turn to moan now rather than the big boys.

"We have a very difficult week ahead of us and I just hope we have enough men to cope."