Owen starts in Aviva curtain-raiser

Michael Owen has been handed a surprise start for Manchester United in their pre-season warm-up against an Airtricity League XI in Dublin tonight.

The match marked the first official football match to be played at the new Aviva Stadium but more importantly for United the second-last game of a pre-season that reaches its conclusion at Sunday’s Community Shield against Chelsea at Wembley.

It was at Wembley during the Carling Cup final last February that Owen suffered the hamstring injury that ended his season.

Although England’s fourth highest goalscorer insists he is not ready to complete a full 90 minutes, Alex Ferguson has paired him with Wayne Rooney, who has been under the spotlight since his poor performances in England’s disappointing World Cup campaign.

Pictures of Rooney out in Manchester during the early hours this weekend have not done much for the striker’s image either, although Ferguson knows he is heavily reliant on his star striker again this term.

Like Rooney and Owen, Nemanja Vidic, Park Ji-sung, Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia have also been handed their first pre-season appearances whilst new signing Chris Smalling is also involved against the Irish, who are lacking any involvement from the Shamrock Rovers stars currently embroiled in a two-legged Europa League tussle with Juventus.