LONDON, May 25: Former England captain Alan Shearer says it may be a good idea for coach Sven-Goran Eriksson to leave striker Michael Owen out of his team’s final World Cup warm-up match against Cameroon in Kobe, Japan on Sunday.

“You cannot wrap Michael up in cotton wool during the World Cup, we (England) have to play our best team in every game,” Shearer told the Sun newspaper on Saturday. “But the final warm-up game? Well, this is another matter.

“There is a strong argument to keep him out and wrapped up in cotton wool, although I am sure it is not what Michael wants to hear from me as he has a chance of being captain against Cameroon.

“However, the last thing the manager needs in the last week before the tournament begins is yet another injury, especially to Michael,” said the Newcastle United striker.

“Everyone has kept calling Sven a lucky manager throughout the qualification games, but during the build-up to the actual tournament he has been anything but ‘Lucky Sven’.”

Captain David Beckham and Kieron Dyer are still recovering from injury, Nicky Butt only trained for the first time on Friday, while Danny Murphy was ruled out of the World Cup on Friday with a broken foot.

Injury had already put paid to Steven Gerrard and Gary Neville before the squad even left home.

For good measure, defender Ashley Cole has a knee injury, though strikers Robbie Fowler and Teddy Sheringham are back in training.

“I am slightly worried about one thing,” said Shearer. “If anything does happen to Michael Owen I wonder where our goals will come from.

“It worries me that something might happen to him because Michael is our main hope in the World Cup.”

England will meet Argentina, Sweden and Nigeria in World Cup group F.—Reuters