Owen keen to dispel injury myth

Manchester United new boy Michael Owen is desperate to shake off his injury-prone tag and be a success at Old Trafford.

The former Liverpool frontman has signed a two-year deal with the champions after his contract expired at Newcastle and he is as hungry as ever to make his surprise switch a success.

The 29-year-old will wear the number seven shirt vacated by Cristiano Ronaldo and he has vowed to halt all the recent negativity surrounding his fitness.

Owen accepts a broken metatarsal and subsequent cruciate knee ligament injury, caused as a direct result of rushing back to action too quickly for the 2006 World Cup, wiped out his first two years at Newcastle, but he is confident he is now 100 per cent fit.

“It does irritate me that so many people have doubts,” said Owen, who will compete with Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov to lead the line with Sir Alex Ferguson set to use a 4-4-2 system more this season.

“But if there is one thing I am angered by, the injury thing would be it. There is no doubt I have had injuries in my career. But there is a long list of players that have had a broken metatarsal. I was foolish trying to rush back for the World Cup and my leg had just come out of plaster.

“But I played 33 and 32 games in the last two years in a team that was not in Europe and did not go on a decent cup run. Still I was continually labelled injury-prone, which gets up my nose.

“I am 29 and have played over 500 games for club and country. That says it all.”

Ferguson was quick to wrap up a deal for Owen when he became available last month and it’s not too often the United boss gets his Premier League transfers wrong.

Owen, who has 40 England goals behind him, could well prove to be the bargain recruit of the summer after arriving on a free transfer and he’ll certainly be keen to upset the football odds.