Former England international Michael Owen believes it would be pretty disastrous if the Three Lions fail to progress beyond the round of 16 of this summer’s World Cup. England have been pitted against Panama, Tunisia and Belgium in their World Cup group and further progress could see them face one of Colombia, Japan, Senegal or Poland in the round of 16.

As such, Owen expects his country to at least reach the quarter-final stage and anything short of that could be been termed as disastrous, according to the former Liverpool star. Owen told Gulf News: “I don’t see England within the top five or six to be honest. But they’ve been very lucky with the draw and even in the second round we’re playing against only an okay group, so in theory it would be pretty disastrous if we don’t get into the quarter-finals.We’ve said that before and got beat by Iceland of course.”

Arsenal great David Seaman believes Gareth Southgate would be a fool, if he ignores the services of midfielder Jack Wilshere for the World Cup finals in Russia in June. The England international has been featuring regularly for the Gunners over the past few months, and his progress has earned him praise from across the nation.

Speaking on TalkSPORT, Seaman feels Wilshere would add the cutting edge to England's play at the global tournament after having overcome his regular injury concerns, he said: "Jack is playing brilliantly. We’ve known this with Jack, he’s got this ability of unlocking defences, he can see passes other players can’t.

Former Liverpool star Michael Owen fears for Daniel Sturridge following an injury setback during Monday's Premier League outing between Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion. The 28-year-old has suffered as many as 31 injuries over the last five seasons.

Michael Owen claims that Liverpool are capable of beating any team by any score, as the club’s attack is on a different league. The presence of four excellent attacking players – Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Philippe Coutinho, and Roberto Firmino – means that Liverpool have been scoring goals for fun. The team were able to rip apart Shakhtar Moscow by a 7-0 score in the latest Champions League game. This was of a huge significance given that Liverpool have now scored 23 goals in the group matches alone. This result gives Liverpool the probability to come up against the likes of Juventus, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich.

This is a major disappointment for the Reds considering that they finished top of the group, but Michael Owen says that the sheer number of goals scored by Liverpool mean that the team will be on a confident note coming into the last 16 round. The knockout round is of massive importance for Liverpool, as the team need to progress into the latter stages of the competition in order to announce the return to the top stages. At this moment, Liverpool are seen as a club far away from their glory days. Michael Owen is no stranger to having played with teams that scored a lot of goals, and he says that Liverpool have the potential to beat anyone.

Former Manchester United striker Michael Owen believes his former side are facing worrying signs ahead of their Champions League clash against Basel on Tuesday night.

Speaking after the game, Owen admitted that the United backline is still not good enough as they lack a world-class defender, he said: "I would be concerned slightly with Manchester United’s defence. They’re in the Champions League now and against the best teams I can’t look at that back four and think ‘world class defender’ about any of them. I think they are all much of a muchness really. I think Antonio Valencia is a top player. But he is playing out of position and against a top team, perhaps even he could be found out. I think that’s a worry there."