Newcastle’s Owen: I’m happy with how things are going

Owen told the club’s official website: “I am happy with how things are going and I felt strong.

“The next step is to continue running and to do some ball work before joining in with training.

“I enjoyed the first 10 minutes and then it started to feel like hard work. But every step you take is a step in the right direction and it is all going great at the moment.”

He also said: “I did quite a lot of running at the end of last week as well, but the pitches were frozen so we did most of it indoors.

“I feel strong and I am happy with the way things are going. I now want to continue running and ball work and things like that.

“I presume I will be doing that for at least a month, then stepping things up.

“After that, it is ball work and stepping things up in training. Then it will be match practice and possibly organising a game between us or against somebody else.

“That, though, is a little bit down the line.”