Owen believes he can still prove to be good enough for England, despite only having started two of United’s 10 games this season.
Owen told the Daily Mirror: “I haven’t resigned myself to never playing for England again.
“But I’m not stupid enough to get myself worked up before every squad’s announced and then go ‘oh no, the world’s caved in and I’m not in it again’.
“Everyone deals with things in different ways. The first time I wasn’t named in the squad I was really gutted. The second time I was pretty gutted, the next time I was just gutted and so on.
“People deal with knockbacks in life, whatever they may be, in different ways. You build up a protective mechanism so it won’t hurt you.
“If someone punches you on the nose, it hurts, so the next time it happens you’ll put your hands up or you expect it’s coming, so you soften the blow.
“It’s like that with England. It hurt to start with, it hurt a little bit less the second time, and now it doesn’t hurt as much. But that doesn’t mean I’ve given up.
“I’d love to play for my country again, but I don’t look out for the squad expecting my name to be in it, unless someone phones me to tell me otherwise.”
