By Nick Raynor
December 4 2006

Newcastle United striker Michael Owen is optimistic of returning to action before the end of this season.

The England striker suffered a freak injury at the World Cup 2006 and ruptured a ligament in his knee, needing 2 operations from Dr. Richard Steadman in America to fix the problem.

 

Owen joined Newcastle in August 2005 and has only played 10 games for the club since, after first breaking his foot at New Year’s against Tottenham.

 

The 26-year-old is hoping to get back to first team action before the summer, and also regain the pace he had when he was 18.

 

Owen said:

 

"I'm confident I'll play this season,"

 

"It would be great if I could go into the summer knowing everything's fine.

 

"The turn of the year will be the important time when I have a scan, but I'm sure I'm going to come back as strong as ever.

 

”As long as the scan shows that everything has knitted together nicely, we can press on and hopefully I can start jogging early February.

 

"The injury has been difficult because my one passion, apart from my family, has been taken away from me,

 

"It's been a long slog and there's still quite a lot of work to be done, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm looking forward to playing again.

 

"I'll be 27 on 14 December so I'd like to think I'm just past the middle of my career and hopefully I have many more happy years on the football pitch in front of me.

 

"This is a clean slate and I hope I can get that speed back that I had when I was 18."