Owen feels guilt over injury

Michael Owen has revealed the guilt he feels for Newcastle following his serious injury.

Michael Owen has revealed his first thought when he realised the severity of his knee injury was for his club Newcastle United.

Wednesday's scan confirmed that the injury suffered in the opening stages of England's match with Sweden was cruciate ligament damage and the player may now not see action again until 2007.

Some reports are even suggesting Owen will have to sit out the entire forthcoming season and that would come as a huge blow to Newcastle - a club, who despite shelling out £17 million to sign him from Real Madrid last August, have seen Owen make just 11 appearances in a black-and-white shirt.

Having also been without the former Liverpool striker for virtually the whole of the second half of the last campaign following a broken metatarsal sustained in December, Owen admits he now feels guilty.

"I can control my emotions and I can honestly say that when I was flat on my back with ice-packs around my knee, it wasn't self-pity I was feeling but guilt," Owen told the Times.

"I was sending text messages apologising to all sorts of people for letting them down.

"I feel really guilty when I think of the people at Newcastle United.

"I think of the chairman Freddy Shepherd, who has invested all that money and Glenn Roeder, the manager, who has kept in touch through the tournament and been very supportive. And those great fans who have only seen me for 11 matches."

Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder could not hide his disappointment at the loss of Owen, with the news coming as a major blow to his preparations for the new season.

The Magpies may now double their efforts to inject new blood into the team's striking department but Roeder insists the loss of Owen will not be easily compensated.

"Now people will understand why Sir Alex Ferguson has been jumping up and down at Old Trafford about the Wayne Rooney situation," said Roeder.

"For at the end of the day, Rooney will probably be the difference between Manchester United winning the Premiership title or not.

"And Michael Owen is the same for us. Strikers like Alan Shearer and Michael Owen do not just grow on trees and you just cannot go out and get another one.

"Yes, it is a massive blow but what Newcastle United will not do is wallow in self-pity."

While Owen's thoughts are now fixed on a quest to get fit for his club, the striker, who flew home from Germany on Wednesday, is keeping his fingers crossed he will be able to return on July 9 to pick up a World Cup winner's medal.

"As I left the team hotel in Germany yesterday to fly home, I told Sven-Goran Eriksson that I would be back out for the World Cup final," said Owen.

"My tournament might be over, but I still want that medal around my neck.

"It is strange to think that my farewell yesterday was the last I might see of Sven, a manager who has picked me whenever I have been available and for whom I have scored a lot of goals.

"But I haven't given up hope of seeing him again on July 9."