Newcastle boss: Owen can learn from Man Utd winger Giggs

“At 27 years old, Michael should come back better,” said Big Sam.

“But a lot of that will lie in the work he does with the help of the people and specialists we have working for us at the club.

“Specifically, it is about the sort of conditioning programme he will have to take. A good example of that is Ryan Giggs, who, in his mid-20s, had a huge long period of persistent hamstring tears.

“Him and Alex (Ferguson) did loads of research into the problem and then managed it through extra sessions of yoga, pilates or stretching.

“Ryan took that up permanently and very, very rarely now, even in his mid-30s, does he suffer from the problem he had before.”