Owen insists that he is now fully-fit and has overcome the psychological barrier of fearing a recurrence which has held him back this season. With Beckham having overtaken him as England's highest-profile player, he still has it all to prove once more at Euro 2000.

At least he enters the tournament relatively fresh and his genuine pace, allied to finishing ability, offers England one of their main attacking threats. Yet to make his partnership with Shearer gel instinctively but they remain Keegan's first-choice strike duo.

Their performance in the warm-up match against Brazil will have helped put a stop to some of their critics.

Held the ball up beautifully before feeding Beckham as England scored their second goal against Portugal, but substituted at half-time with a bang on the knee. Didn't get the chance to put his pace to good effect.

Again, he was substituted against Germany after a game in which he found little space and time to take on the legs of Matthaeus.