England and Newcastle United striker Michael Owen underwent further surgery yesterday evening on the fractured metatarsal sustained at Tottenham on December 31 which means he may not play for another month.

That would have implications for England because Owen may play only three Premiership games before Sven-Goran Eriksson names his World Cup squad on May 8.

Although it will be 33 days between the England squad for Germany being announced and their opening Group B game against Paraguay in Frankfurt - with friendlies against Hungary and Jamaica before that - it is clearly not ideal preparation and there is an echo of David Beckham prior to the last World Cup.

Owen travelled to Manchester to have the screw that was inserted in the little toe of his right foot tightened. The decision on further surgery followed complaints of soreness this week from Owen which prompted a scan on Thursday.

“The specialists have said that everything is healing fine,” said Owen via a statement on Newcastle's website last night. “But to speed the process they need to tighten the screw they inserted at the time of my operation in January. It is a simple process and should ensure that I am back playing for Newcastle before the end of the season.”

When Owen was originally injured at White Hart Lane on New Year's Eve, Newcastle said they expected him to return to action in eight to 12 weeks and the player himself said he predicted he would "see at least a month" of the current campaign.

A return date of April 8 had been suggested - Newcastle are at Middlesbrough that day - and that would be 14 weeks after the injury occurred in a collision with Paul Robinson. That is still within the recovery time frame originally mentioned.

Owen has joined a long line of England players whose careers have been blighted by metatarsal problems including David Beckham, who went through a similar race to be fit for the last World Cup. Others to suffer metatarsal problems include Gary Neville, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole and Danny Murphy and this latest setback is bound to cause concern for England head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.

The Newcastle caretaker manager, Glenn Roeder, has insisted Michael Owen will still be ready for the England squad in Germany this summer, despite the repeat of surgery.

Roeder is positive about Owen's prospects although it still seems unlikely that Owen will be able to regain optimum sharpness before the World Cup gets underway on June 9.

“These are bound to be nervous times for the England coach and for England fans as the tournament approaches, but I have been reassured by Michael's surgeon that the World Cup is still well within Michael's compass, but that he wanted to tighten the screw in his damaged metatarsal to help speed up his recovery,” said Roeder.

“We have to believe him when he says Michael will be available to play for Newcastle before the end of the season and so I would say that it's full steam ahead as far as Michael and the World Cup are concerned.

“At the moment it's red-hot and people are getting hysterical about it. It is disappointing but it's only a setback and we've been told he should get a couple of games in before the end of the season. We very much expect that so there should be no worries as far as England are concerned and he will go off to the World Cup finals with our best wishes.”

He added: “Michael Owen is the forward whose name will strike fear into all the countries at the World Cup. I don't want to try to pick the manager's team but Wayne Rooney-Michael Owen has a lovely ring to it.”

When Owen was originally injured at White Hart Lane on New Year's Eve, Newcastle said they expected him to return to action in eight to 12 weeks and the player himself said he predicted he would "see at least a month" of the current campaign.

There was vague talk of him playing in the midweek FA Cup tie against Chelsea but that was before it became apparent all was not well. "We were hoping Michael might return for the Middlesbrough game [on April 9] but over the last few days he has been complaining about discomfort in his foot," Roeder said.

"He had been on target to play in the next few weeks and initially we thought he might just need a few more days' rest but he had the injury re-scanned and then the decision was made to perform a minor operation which should accelerate the healing process."

Owen's plight may have already persuaded Eriksson to devise a Plan B in case he fails to be restored to full fitness and that could leave the door open for an extra striker in the 23-man squad. Peter Crouch, Darren Bent and Jermain Defoe are all vying for a place on the plane to Germany to partner Rooney in England's forward line. It might also offer Everton's on-form striker James Beattie the chance to return to the international fold.

Eriksson will also have to decide whether or not he can afford to gamble on the fitness of a player who has scored 33 goals in 74 internationals and whose importance to the national cause was summed up by Rooney.

“If you look at Michael Owen's record he is a proven goalscorer and every team need one,” Rooney said. “So if he is not fully fit by the time we get to the World Cup finals it will be a great disappointment to us all.”