Michael Owen was given the news all England feared: he is out of the World Cup with injury. This means Sven Goran-Eriksson will have to rely on a couple of striker that was the most unlikely at the beginning of the World Cup: Peter Crouch and Wayne Rooney.

Owen, who has flown home to England, said: “Obviously it’s a massive blow to suffer the injury – and to be out of the World Cup. As soon as it happened I knew I was in trouble. It was a major disappointment to pick up the injury so early in the game.

“I’ll go back home now and work with the Newcastle medical staff to put a recovery programme in place. I’m clearly sorry to be leaving the lads in Germany, but I’m convinced they can go on and achieve success.

“I’ll be following all the matches very closely and giving them my full support, hopefully all the way to Berlin. My main objective is now to get fit as quickly as possible for Newcastle United.”

Source: WCoffsite