Michael Owen Thread

Bar the Bull

At the Start
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Like Barbaro, Michael Owen is facing a crucial few weeks in his battle to save his career. I don't mind if the moderators wish to change the title of the thread to Michael Owen Welfare and Changes.

3rd July Update

He said: "We've had all the scans done over here, basically we're thinking from what the scans say that it's a cruciate."It's a rupture, you can't see the cruciate on the scan so it's obviously floating about somewhere in the knee, but apart from that there is minimal damage. "There is nothing else that needs operating on, so that is a big bonus."Not so much of a bonus in terms of time limits, but just in coming back where you have just one injury to come back from and not plenty of things going on in your knee." He added: "It's a bitter pill to swallow, and if I thought I'd miss the World Cup and be back for the start of the season then it would have softened the blow, but to get the injury that most footballers fear the worst and to be ruled out for the rest of the year is a major disappointment." "You look at it and think it can happen to anyone, and it was just disappointing that it happened to me in such a massive game in the World Cup. "There are plenty of players who are worse off than me, who have had plenty more injuries than me."

Owen's injury-plagued spell on Tyneside means he has made just 11 appearances for the Magpies since his summer switch from Real Madrid, and he admits to "feeling guilty" at the start of another period of inactivity."I did feel guilty as I said shortly after the injury, I'm that type of person," he added. "My mum, dad, sister and wife came down from the stand to the treatment room after I was carried off, and they were talking to me and obviously you feel sorry for yourself for a few minutes. "But after that I was straight on the phone texting people at Newcastle, the manager, the chairman obviously, and that's the way I feel. "As soon as I got injured I thought the World Cup was dead and buried for me, and the main people to suffer were the Newcastle fans, and the Newcastle public. "That's how I feel. Some people feel sorry for themselves, some people feel other things, but I automatically felt responsible and feel like apologising, even though the people I talk to say I shouldn't feel like that."

And looking back at the incident which brought a premature end to his involvement in the World Cup, Michael added: "It was my first touch I think. "I got the ball into feet out wide, took a touch and saw Ashley Cole just making a run inside me and I played the ball inside the defender. "I went to plant my foot, I'm not sure where I was going to run, but I think it must have been back towards the central area, and I just felt my knee give way. "I didn't know whether it was a twist or what, but it just literally gave way. "After that I just remember crawling off the pitch and into the treatment room."
 
Maybe Michael is under more danger than we had previously thought. Here is the latest update on his case from today's Guardian.

Leading footballers like Michael Owen who fly to the United States to be treated for serious knee injuries by the top surgeon Richard Steadman are putting themselves at risk of suffering the potentially fatal deep-vein thrombosis, a senior British sports doctor has claimed.

Steve Bollen, Bradford City's club doctor and founder of the British Orthopedic Sports Trauma Association, has claimed there are plenty of doctors in the UK who are capable of treating such injuries. But athletes are turning increasingly towards Steadman's Colorado clinic to receive treatment. "It's often the agents, rather than the players, who have the idea they can only be treated in the US," Bollen said.

Steadman has operated on many of Britain's leading sportsmen who have suffered knee injuries, including Alan Shearer and the England cricketer Simon Jones, and Owen is due at his clinic later this summer for surgery as the England striker seeks to recover from the knee injury that ended his World Cup. Bollen has told the latest issue of Hospital Doctor that he was preparing to treat one top British player when suddenly he was sent to the US to be treated by Steadman.

"It was very bad - the player's leg was filling with blood," he said. "Next thing, the agent had packed him off on an 11-hour flight to Colorado with his leg in a brace." And that despite the fact Bollen had recommended the player should not fly for at least four weeks.
 
Is he going to have to be in a hoist? Should we worry about loss of fitness, going in his coat, and the possibility that he'll become terribly one-sided? Anyone sponsoring a cross-Channel swim to raise funds for his retirement upkeep?
 
But you're not going to be someone's Wife And Girlfriend, are you? You could be 'a' WAG, but not someone's. It'd be hard to be a wife and cheat on yourself, I'd have thought, unless you had a split personality.
 
Oh crikey I'm over loading now.

Some one I know's ex girlfriend was/ is somebody else's wife (though she did ring him 2 weeks ago out of the blue, after a couple years of non communication :ph34r: )

To one party she was seen as a G to the other a W (who didn't know about the G bit obviously) well not until the person I knew told the H, but that's another story. She would have seen herself as either, depending which way she was facing, and whose company she was in, and was indeed quite happy to refer to herself as a G, in certain company. So in this scenario she was both a W and a G, unless of course you believe the W component has primacy.

Some how I think I'm missing something here, and thoroughly expect to be slapped down, but my friend often lamented the fact that someone had gone and married his G which caused the WaG a degree of amusement.
 
She's not a girlfriend, though, is she? She's an ex-girlfriend, which doesn't count. You can't claim to be a vicar if you left the cloth to become an accountant, can you? You're an ex-vicar. She can only BE a girlfriend if she is playing away from being a wife, making her a WAG - Wife AND Girlfriend, but to two different people. (I say 'people' advisedly, not wishing to stereotype her preferences, blah, blah.) :what:
 
I find this whole obsession with WAG`s totally depressing. On a similar theme i read an article in the Guardian today about the World Cup being the last hurrah of the current generation of "great" players - Henry, Zidane, Figo and Beckham.

Said article was actually about brand names and sponsors. Now, i consider people involved in advertising to be alongside minor celebs and tabloid journos as being the lowest of the low, but some of the quotes attributed to various suited ponces were unreal.

My favourite was this little gem from Mark Knight, account director with the Redmandarin strategic sponsorship consultancy:

Knight believes that it would be premature to write off Beckham just yet. "Beckham's star is beginning to wane but his World Cup performance will not affect his status. The brand is bigger than one bad game. The same goes for Zidane, who will continue to be loved by the French. Remember Eric Cantona karate-kicked a fan and, at the end of the day, he is still the face of Nike. When you have talent and respect, that does not just go away. Beckham and Zidane could be Beckenbauer-type figures in 20 to 30 years' time.

It`s like in the world of entertainment/sport/music etc how you look is getting to be almost as important for the male of the species as the female. If we were to rate footballers like horses you`d have a list like this:

Maradona 144
Pele 143

Zidane 139


Beckham 119

Very depressing imo. I noticed on a thread about a film in General Chat Shadow Leader being aghast that criticism could be levelled at a piece of work starring some actor - Killian somebody or other. Sad. Spencer Tracey would be knackered if he was around today, that`s for sure.
 
I think that football engaging 'strategic sponsorship consultancies' is far more depressing than joking about wives and ghoulfriends, to be honest. I know nothing about the industry (it's hardly just a sport, is it?), but once something requires such attentions, it's just commerce, branding, and milking the gullible 'consumers'.

Noted as I walked into town today, Brighton & Hove has its new strip on display in its shop - why is it necessary to change strip every year? I thought you registered your club's colours (like racing silks) and that was it.
 
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