Magpies threaten legal action over Owen compensation

Newcastle are considering legal action in their fight for adequate compensation for Michael Owen's World Cup injury.

The 26-year-old is facing months on the sidelines after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament injury in England 2-2 draw against Sweden on Tuesday.

Magpies chairman Freddy Shepherd, amid newspaper allegations that the Football Association took out extra insurance cover for Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney as he battled back from his fractured metatarsal, has instructed the club's lawyers to look into the situation.

Newcastle understand the FA's insurers will pay a proportion of Owen's £103,000-a-week wages while he is out of action, but Shepherd - who took out additional cover himself - believes that is inadequate with the club's record signing unlikely to play again until next year.

He told the club's official website: 'If reports are true that the Football Association paid to take out extra cover for Wayne Rooney above and beyond what they would do for other players during the World Cup finals, then I find that wrong.

'I make it quite clear this is not an issue with Manchester United, it's solely with the FA.

'If they were prepared to do that for one player, then they should have come out in the open and told the other clubs who have players representing England at the World Cup.

'The FA should not discriminate when it comes to things like this. It should be one rule for all players and all clubs.

'In this case, it is Newcastle United who now have to pick up the pieces.

'Michael is our record signing and he went to Germany as the leading goalscorer in the England squad, so we have every right to feel aggrieved that he returns to us injured and without adequate compensation paid to us.

'The World Cup generates millions of pounds in revenue for FIFA and the associations, and we should be adequately compensated.

'That's our position and we have today instructed our lawyers to take this forward.'

Owen, who joined Newcastle from Real Madrid in a £17million move last August, has made just 11 appearances since because of a series of injuries.

The last - like Rooney's, a fractured metatarsal - kept him out of action for almost five months.

He returned to Tyneside yesterday, where he was seen by club medics as the process of assessing the full extent of the damage began.

The injury will require surgery and a lengthy period of rehabilitation, and process which will be as expensive for the club as it will be gruelling for the player.

Owen's injury has left the Magpies, who were already facing the task of having to replace Alan Shearer after his retirement, and Michael Chopra, who last week left for Cardiff, with just two fit strikers.