Michael Owen will miss Newcastle United’s friendly against Carlisle United as a precautionary measure.

Owen is expected to be out of action for around ten days after picking up a thigh injury in training, and although the injury is not serious, Newcastle will not risk the England striker with the Premiership season set to start in under a month.

“It’s a slight thigh injury he picked up doing a little shooting exercise, so we are taking a precautionary measure and leaving him out of tomorrow’s game,” Toon boss Sam Allardyce said.

“Hopefully, it will be no more than a week or 10 days and he should be back in training again.

“It may actually be a little early for the Celtic match, but Juventus on the Sunday is one we hope he can be fit for.”

Allardyce believes a fully fit Owen will bang in the goals next season, having managed just seven in two injury-hit years with The Magpies so far.

“There’s no doubt that we would like Michael to stay fit for the whole of a season in the Premier League and be chasing the leading goalscorers,” he said.

“One would hope when we are drawing to a close at the end of next season, he is within the top three or four leading goalscorers in the Premier League - that would mean we have had a relatively good season.”

Owen will also miss Newcastle’s friendly against Celtic