Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce has labelled Michael Owen's thigh injury as "terrible news" after confirming he would be out for up to six weeks.Owen was brought off in the 34th minute of the international friendly clash with Austria and with the current diagnosis being that he will be out of action for at least four weeks Allardyce has been left rueing the international friendly schedule.

He told the club's official website: "This injury has happened in what we thought wasn't a very important game, and we've lost one of our biggest players.

"The games are coming fast and furious in December and it looks like Michael will miss a lot of those games.

"We want to get him back to Tyneside as quickly as possible. There's no point him staying with England as we want to start his recovery.

"From our point of view it's terrible news. Our medical staff spoke to England staff and Michael could be out for between four and six weeks."

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