Kinnear rues Owen injury

Owen to miss next league game

Newcastle star Michael Owen is expected to be back playing in around ten days.

The England striker hurt his groin in training earlier this week and The Magpies have been waiting on the results of a scan.

Interim boss Joe Kinnear admitted that there was a fear Owen could be out for up to a month, but results have shown that the injury will only rule him out for just over a week.

Owen will now definitely miss Monday's clash with Manchester City at St James' Park, but he could be fit in time for the derby clash with Sunderland a week later.

"He has sort of tweaked his groin in training," Kinnear told Sky Sports News.

"He had a scan and I would think we would be looking at between seven and ten days.

"He won't be involved for the Man City match, but he would have a realistic chance, say 50/50 for the Sunderland game.

"It is a massive blow really, he is always liable to nick you a goal and we will miss that.

"Having said that we have to kick that into touch and get on with that and we have worked with various players who will be in contention to replace Michael."

Oba return?

Kinnear did reveal that Obafemi Martins could return sooner than expected from his knee injury to replace Owen against City.

"We have pushed up his [Martins'] training schedule, we were planning to keep him back but because of this we have brought him back into the first-team squad," he said.

"He hasn't had to have any more treatment back on the injury to his knee prior to training so that is a good sign and he is in my mind to be involved in the match against Manchester City."