England striker Michael Owen has undergone further surgery on a broken foot raising concerns over his fitness for the World Cup. The 26-year-old Newcastle forward had what his club called a minor procedure at a Manchester hospital on Friday after feeling soreness round the metatarsal he broke on December 31. “The specialists have said that everything is healing fine but to speed the process they need to tighten the screw they inserted at the time of operation in January,” Owen said on the club’s website. Owen said last month he expected to be playing for Newcastle by the beginning of April but the new surgery will delay his return to the end of next month.FOOTY FACTOID: RTM “kicked off” the much-awaited FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 in a big way — by announcing that TV1 and TV2 will be screening 47 of the 64 matches in the tournament. RTM deputy-general of broadcasting Datuk Aminah noted that the France World Cup in 1998 registered a viewership of more than 37 billion and they aim to beat that.
