Owen in the clear for World Cup

Michael Owen’s World Cup hopes have been boosted by an x-ray this morning which revealed there is no fresh damage to the foot injury that sidelined him for four months.

Owen made a 30-minute appearance off the bench in Newcastle’s goalless draw against Birmingham at St Andrews – his first action since breaking his foot on New Year’s Eve – but complained of discomfort afterwards.

A spokesman for Newcastle said: “Michael saw the specialist first thing this morning and had an x-ray and undertook various tests.

“The results were positive – there is no damage and the specialist said that it was quite normal for a certain level of pain to be experienced in the first couple of games back after an injury of this type.”

With Wayne Rooney having fractured a metatarsal yesterday at Chelsea there were fears about England’s World Cup chances.

However the Owen news will be a relief to England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Earlier Newcastle caretaker manager Glenn Roeder had dismissed as “hysterical” talk his star striker missing this summer’s showpiece.