He remains reluctant to discuss dates but Glenn Roeder's confidence that Michael Owen will make his Newcastle comeback this season is growing as the industrious striker works around the clock to recover his fitness.
 Owen is determined to taste Premiership action during the current campaign and, although it will still be months before he can hope to pull on a black-and-white shirt again, the 27-year-old is pulling out all the stops as he attempts to achieve a burning ambition. The Gallowgate favourite has not kicked a ball since he ruptured cruciate ligaments during the World Cup finals in June but, having undergone career-saving knee surgery in Colorado, he is making encouraging progress in his rehabilitation. The work is predominantly gym-based, with Owen building up his strength before embarking on a programme of running in the New Year. And although Roeder remains cautious about making predictions, the striker's positive attitude is rubbing off on a manager who hopes United's £16m record signing will succeed in his quest. "I think it's important that Michael's aim is to get back before the end of the season," said Roeder, who has got just 29 minutes of first-team football out of the unfortunate forward in the ten months since he succeeded Graeme Souness at St James's Park. "If he was saying, `I don't think I will play this season', it would make the rehab much harder for him. Next season sounds like such an awful long time away, whereas the end of this season will soon come around. "Michael's right to set that target and I hope he makes it. If he doesn't, it won't be for the lack of trying because he has really grafted. We are still too far away to know whether he will make it or not. All we can say is that the rehab is going really, really well." Roeder has spent an increasing amount of time in the club's treatment room in recent weeks as he attempts to keep tabs on an injury crisis unprecedented in its scale. It has allowed him to keep a close eye on Owen's progress. And, having discussed the situation with the striker on a regular basis, the United boss has begun to share his optimism. "I see Michael once or twice a day when I pop into the physio's room to see how Emergency Ward 10 is going," he joked last night. "You see him in the corner doing his rehab work and, when you ask him `how is it feeling?' and `is it feeling strong?' he comes up with all the right answers - the things you would want him to say. "He says it is feeling strong and he is saying there's a chance we might get him fit before the end of the season. If that happens, it would be a massive bonus - I can't tell you what a bonus it would be to have Michael fit before the end of the season. But we also have to accept that there is a potential that it might not happen." That there is still a long way to go is underlined by the fact that Owen has still not started to run and will not be allowed to kick a ball for the foreseeable future. Yet it is part of a carefully-managed programme designed to ensure that the England international makes a full recovery from an horrific injury that could have spelled a premature end to his playing career. "Michael has not kicked a ball yet and he's nowhere near being able to do that yet," added Roeder. "I don't think that he's jogging at the moment, either. He is just concentrating on doing a lot of strengthening work, getting the knee straight and flat and into a position where he can put strength back into the leg before he can start jogging again. "I don't know when that will start because I don't need to. That's still too far away for me to be thinking about. But it is going well." | 
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