Owen Wants An Injury-Free Campaign

Michael Owen's first game back from injury was highlighted with a well-headed goal. The England international is now targeting a year of good fitness, and aims to put his injury woes behind him...

Michael Owen's Newcastle career has been marred by injuries, despite this the 28-year old has still managed to accumulate a one in two goal ratio that his manager Kevin Keegan has called 'incredible'.

Owen replaced Nigerian forward Obafemi Martins in the weekend's game versus Bolton Wanderers, and netted the only goal of the game.

He told the club's official website: "I wouldn’t be out here if I wasn’t 100 per cent but you can’t have the illness that I’ve had and then just go and train and then after two minutes go and play straight away."

"You need to almost harden your body. Like last season when the manager took over, I played almost 20 games under his reign and there wasn’t even an ounce of a problem because your body gets hardened to playing," he said.

"When I’ve struggled it’s when I’ve been stop-start. The first 10 training sessions and the first two or three games after I’ve got injured are very important and, as long as I can get through the next couple of weeks – the next couple of games – then I’m off and away," he concluded.

Because of the injury Martins picked up in the last game, Michael Owen may even feature midweek in the Magpies Carling Cup clash with Coventry City, even though Keegan was opposed to rushing him back.

I think our main obstacle for recent years has been our defensive lines n bad luck with injuries
this season we strengthened our back line with the addition of Coloccini and i hope now bad luck with injuries wont step at our side hopefully cause if this happen i can see Magpies finish 5th or who knows

mahdy ur a newcastle fan ?