Owen is given England B captaincy

[kyan]

If Owen comes through unscathed he could face Brazil and Estonia
Fit-again striker Michael Owen will captain England B when they take on Albania at Turf Moor on Friday night.

Owen, 27, has not appeared for England since 20 June, when he suffered a serious knee injury against group rivals Sweden at the World Cup.

The Newcastle star is joined in attack by Manchester United's Alan Smith.

"We have missed him, many times he has been our saviour," said coach Steve McClaren of Owen. "It has been a bad injury but he has come through it."

However, McClaren warned that people should not expect too much from Owen.

"Michael looks fit and sharp but lets not put too much pressure on him," he said.

"He needs games and training sessions. He looks stronger and fitter and he has worked on that on his year out.

"It is a boost for everyone that he is involved. You do miss your best players."

Owen is happy to be back in action again and said the thought of suffering a recurrence of his knee injury would not play on his mind.

"No, no, not at all," said Owen. "It only enters your mind if you have had an injury and you still feel something, or you are getting swelling in a certain area or if you pull a muscle, you are still feeling it tightening.

"That is when it enters your mind because it is sending a message from your body to your head saying you are still hurting.

"But, right from minute one, as soon as the swelling went down after my operation, I have sailed through rehab.

"Every time I have been asked to step it up and do the next thing, I have done it with no problems at all."

Michael Dawson, Nicky Shorey and David Bentley are also in the starting line-up and will be making their senior England debuts.

There have been 54 England B internationals.

If Owen comes through unscathed from the 55th, he will be in contention for a place in the senior squad ahead of the forthcoming games with Brazil and Estonia.

England play Brazil in the first senior international at the new Wembley on 1 June before travelling to Estonia for a Euro 2008 qualifier on 8 June.

McClaren names his squad for the two senior internationals at 1200 BST on Saturday.

BBC SPORT | Football | Internationals | Owen is given England B captaincy

I don't get the point in having a "B" team, I understand it allows for big players to be dropped but I think it shouldn't be allowed and the coach should just tell his star players it's a meaningless game so he wants to try out new things, that way the players picked would have more incentives too cos they'd actually be getting an England cap.

Good to see some new faces with Shorey & Bentley who have had fantastic seasons, let's hope they do well.

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Me neither.B-international games should be off.

[kennethlindheim]

This is so lame.

[Sami_Khedira]

We had one before WC, which was called team 2006. In fact a lame idea, cuz there always played player which were too bad for NT plus we could just played against 3-4 nations because they were the only one with a B-team too Now we don´t got one anymore, I wonder why