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Owen set to miss qualifiers

Owen set to miss qualifiers


Owen set to miss qualifiers

Newcastle and England striker Michael Owen is set to miss England's next crucial Euro 2008 Qualifiers. The Newcastle striker will see a specialist to decide whether he needs surgery. Sam Allardyce has confirmed Owen has a 3cm tear in his abductor muscle.

"It will be three weeks out," Allardyce confirmed last night.

"He would miss England with his groin - so we might as well check up whether he needs a hernia op or not, while he is out for two or three weeks with his abductor tear."

With England set to face Estonia at Wembley on October 13 before travelling to Moscow four days later to play Russia, Wayne Rooney will be set to start up front after recovering from recent injuries, and Dean Ashton is knocking on the door for a starting berth in England's strike force. Emile Heskey picked up a metatarsal injury and will miss the key games.

Owen's loss would be a huge blow to McClaren, with the striker in top form for his country in the recent Wembley qualifiers against Israel and Russia.

Allardyce responded that he does not require surgery for definite yet, "Whoever does the surgery cannot say whether he needs a hernia or not until they have seen him, unless they are magic and they can see over here from Germany and peer into his stomach and say 'oh by the way, you have got a hernia and need an operation on it'."