Owen may face Sunderland

Newcastle boss Graeme Souness has not given up hope of unleashing star striker Michael Owen on arch-rivals Sunderland despite his hamstring problem.

The 25-year-old England international is touch and go for the game at St James’ Park on Sunday after complaining of tightness in his hamstring on Tuesday, but a frustrated Souness is yet to admit defeat in his efforts to field his £17m (€25m) hitman.

“Michael came off the training ground on Tuesday, but he has not pulled his hamstring,” he said. “There is a tightness there and coming off was a precautionary measure, but we hope he will be okay for Sunday.

“He didn’t train yesterday and we will have to see how he is over the next couple of days, but we are very optimistic. A hamstring is one of those areas where you have to be very careful and especially with this club’s track record in that department.”

With Kieron Dyer, Albert Luque and Titus Bramble all out with similar problems and Emre having just recovered from one, Souness could be forgiven for thinking his luck has deserted him.

The Magpies are investigating the spate of injuries and any possible connection to their training facilities at Benton, but Souness admits the run of casualties is starting to get to him.

“To say I am suicidal about the current state of affairs is not far off the mark,” he admitted. “It is very difficult to take because it is happening all the time. There never seems to be any let up.

“You could understand the odd strain here and there because footballers have always had those, but this is just one after another.

“We have had the worst of it at Newcastle, but I know for a fact that Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson are tearing their hair out about it too. There seems to be no end in sight.

“While the pitches we have today look fantastic they are not user-friendly in that when they get cut up, all you do is skim a scar across the surface. There is no give.

“Obviously you don’t want to go back to the old days where there was barely a blade of grass on some pitches, but there were certainly fewer muscle strains. The surface could take a stud better because they were not as hard.”

With players voicing concern over the training pitches, Newcastle have announced that they will use the Academy facilities until a solution can be found.

“With immediate effect, the club’s first-team squad will train on the Newcastle Academy pitches for a temporary period until such time as modifications can be made to the first team pitches at the senior training centre,” a club spokesman said.

“Taking this measure will allay everybody’s concerns, particularly the playing squad, over the possibility that these pitches have in some way contributed to the number of injuries experienced in recent times.”

Souness added: “We are keeping an open mind at Newcastle, but there has to be a reason for this. I feel very strongly that we have to get to the bottom of it because we are losing players all the time. The fans here have barely seen Emre, who has suffered a hamstring strain for the first time in his life.

“Kieron Dyer has a recurring problem and Albert Luque lasted barely a game and a half. Michael Owen has now got a niggle and Nobby Solano suffered a strain almost from the moment he came here. Titus Bramble has also picked up a thigh strain.

“The odd strain or two you could handle, but this is just relentless.”