Newcastle United Football Club News

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

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

Sam cools Owen fears

18 Sep 2007 - 08:36:19

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Newcastle United boss Sam Allardyce has allayed fears concerning Michael Owen's fitness after the England striker limped out of Monday's 1-0 defeat at Derby County.

The former Liverpool and Real Madrid star had to be substituted in the 55th minute with a groin problem, but Allardyce insists it is only a minor injury and expects the forward to play against West Ham United this weekend.

The Magpies boss said after the shock defeat: "He felt his groin at half-time.

"I gave him the opportunity to go back on because he wanted to but I didn't want to risk him for longer than five or ten minutes and we took him off as a precaution.

"We need him to be fit because we have too many injured as it is."

Meanwhile, Allardyce has hit out at his side's hectic fixture schedule, adding: "We need to get our whole squad together, but we have a six-day, three-game week coming up.

"We've been dealt a blow by the Premier League because of the Carling Cup match.

"We've been told we have to play on Tuesday night after playing West Ham on
Sunday so it's my turn to moan now rather than the big boys.

"We have a very difficult week ahead of us and I just hope we have enough men to cope."