Owen's D-Day on hernia op

The Newcastle striker will see a specialist to decide whether he needs surgery after club boss Sam Allardyce confirmed Owen has a 3cm tear in his abductor muscle - an injury set to rule him out for most of the next month.

"It will be three weeks out," Allardyce confirmed. "He would miss England with his groin - so we might as well check up whether he needs a hernia op or not, while he is out for two or three weeks with his abductor tear."

With England set to face Estonia at Wembley on October 13 before travelling to Moscow four days later to play Russia, naming a recuperating Owen in his squad would be a massive gamble on the part of coach Steve McClaren.

Speaking after his side's 2-0 Carling Cup third-round defeat at Arsenal, Allardyce said of Owen's injury: "He has a 3cm tear in his abductor muscle and will see a specialist on Thursday to decide whether he will need a hernia operation or not. He will decide when he sees the specialists whether he needs the hernia operation or not."

Responding to reports surgery had already been scheduled for Friday, Allardyce said: "Whoever does the surgery cannot say whether he needs a hernia or not until they have seen him, unless they are magic and they can see over here from Germany and peer into his stomach and say 'oh by the way, you have got a hernia and need an operation on it'."

Owen's loss would be a huge blow to McClaren, with the striker in top form for his country in the recent Wembley qualifiers against Israel and Russia. McClaren resurrected Owen's partnership with Emile Heskey for those games, a move that paid off in spectacular fashion with the Newcastle forward netting three goals in two games.

Such was the impact of the partnership, there was even talk the pair would be retained next month despite Wayne Rooney's return from injury. That was ended almost as soon as it began - because Heskey broke a metatarsal in his first game for his club following the international break.

Owen has proven to be irreplaceable for England in recent years, with a succession of understudies failing to fill his shoes when he has been injured previously.

Rooney's return will help ease the blow. But McClaren now seems set to have to face the dilemma of who to play alongside the Manchester United forward in Owen's absence.