EXCLUSIVE: Michael Owen ruptured his ACL playing for England against Sweden in the 2006 World Cup, and he admits the injury changed him as a player
Michael Owen burst onto the international scene in the 1998 World Cup with an incredible solo goal against Argentina that is played whenever the tournament rolls around. But Owen’s final World Cup appearances eight years later changed his career when he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament.
The then-Newcastle United striker started both of England’s opening group games in 2006 against Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago and lined up in the final game against Sweden as the Three Lions looked to secure top spot.
However, just four minutes into the match, Owen’s right foot gave way and he crumbled in a heap to the turf. He was left rolling around on the floor in agony and was stretchered off before the seriousness of his injury was diagnosed.
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Owen flew home from Germany as England crashed out on penalties to Portugal in the quarter-final and he missed the next year of action.
He returned to the England squad in June 2007 but his comeback was too late to help England qualify for Euro 2008, despite him scoring three goals in four qualifying matches. He went on to play just twice more for England and retired from international football in 2008 after 40 goals in 89 games.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sport, Owen, who is the face of Casino.org in the UK, a leading comparison website helping Brits find online casinos that suit their preferences, admitted he didn’t feel the same player after the injury.
He said: “Yeah, I was possibly regressing a little bit before that injury because I’d had huge hamstring problems early on in my career and so by the time I was 22, 23, I was probably starting to slowly regress.
“But I think that injury in the World Cup then being out for a season and then trying to come back, I definitely came back a slower player and a different player. If you were going to cut my career into halves, then you’d probably say that was the moment.
“I mean my knee is perfect to this day, I can play football, I can go on runs, I can do anything. It was just ageing and muscles and having had a lot of hamstring problems and whatever and then getting a little bit older and just slowing down a bit.
“The knee was fine, but I do think that you could say that year out I was definitely less of a player when I came back.”
Owen still went on to be signed by Sir Alex Ferguson in 2009 and helped Manchester United win the Premier League in 2011 and the League Cup the year before, but he had to change his game dramatically from the sensation that burst through at Liverpool.
“When I was a youngster, if you watched me when I was 17, 18, I was a goal scorer but I was so much more – I would be out wide, I’d be beating people, I’d be making runs, I’d be all over the place.
“Whereas from sort of 25 years of age onwards I just didn’t have that elasticity in my muscles anymore, I didn’t have that power in my muscles anymore. Despite how hard you train that energy of being young and that strength of being young goes.
“I had to change my game. I had to just link play and get in the box which wasn’t my game.
“When I was younger I used to scare the life out of defenders and to be fast and to be a good finisher, but once I’d lost my speed then I just had to be a fox in the box.”