Newcastle United Football Club News

• Nickname:Magpies
• Founded:1881
• Manager:Alan Pardew

• Ground:St James' Park
• Capacity:52,193

Owen edges closer to return

04 Aug 2008 - 12:26:31

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Newcastle United boss Kevin Keegan is confident Michael Owen will be able to play some part in the pre-season friendly against Valencia.

Owen revealed last month that he was recovering from mumps which had forced him to pull out of England's friendly games against the USA and Trinidad & Tobago at the end of last term.

He has been forced to miss the Magpies' pre-season games to date but Keegan has confirmed the striker is close to a return to action, saying: "We're down to one forward at the moment with Alan Smith but we've not risked anybody in our pre-season games.

"Michael Owen will be back soon and will probably come on for the final half-hour of the Valencia game.

"There's a lot of lads who've done a big shift this pre-season. Geremi, Alan Smith, James Milner, Danny Guthrie, Steven Taylor and Claudio Cacapa have all played a lot of football.

"They've done it without complaining and have given it their all. But hopefully we'll have a few of the lads back for our games this week."

Meanwhile, India's second largest mobile operator, Reliance Communications, have denied reports they are in talks with Newcastle over a proposed takeover.

It had been reported that the company's chairman, Anil Ambani, had spoken to Magpies owner Mike Ashley.

However, Reliance Communications released a statement that read: "The news report is completely false and baseless. There are no such plans."