JASON Roberts fears Blackburn Rovers could feel the full force of Michael Owen's frustrations when the England striker steps out at St James' Park tomorrow.

The Newcastle United hitman has not set foot on home soil since December 2005 after a broken metatarsal and a cruciate knee ligament injury, the second sustained with England at the World Cup finals last summer, have confined him to long spells in the treatment room.

But after making his comeback in United's 1-0 defeat at Reading on Monday evening, Owen can finally see an end to his annus horribilis', and with England boss Steve McClaren desperate to bring him back for next month's must win' Euro 2008 qualifier with Estonia, the Newcastle number 10 has every incentive to finish the season with a flourish.

Both England and Newcastle have struggled since Owen got crocked in the opening minutes of that ill-fated World Cup Group B clash with Sweden last June.

Sent spinning out of the World Cup by Portugal at the quarter finals stage in Germany, England have been fumbling around in the dark ever since, hence McClaren's desperation to have his star striker back in the fold again as quickly as possible.

A similar situation has also unfolded at Newcastle, where mid-table mediocrity again beckons for the Geordie faithful following yet another season of broken dreams and underachievement.

That has cranked up the pressure on manager Glenn Roeder and if speculation in the national press is to be believed, he could be overseeing his last match at St James' tomorrow, with Sam Allardyce tipped to take over in the summer.

But amidst all the doom and gloom on Tyneside, Owen's return is a beacon of hope for a fan-base desperate for success after 38 years without a major trophy.

The former Liverpool and Real Madrid star gave United a taste of what he can do when he scored seven goals in his first eight games for the club, including a hat-trick in a 4-2 win at West Ham United in December 2005.

Remarkably, those were Owen's last goals in a Newcastle shirt but with his injuries now behind him, he's looking to announce his arrival back on the big stage at Blackburn's expense.

"Everyone knows Michael Owen is a quality player and I'm sure he'll be desperate to get back amongst the goals again as quickly as possible after so long out," said Roberts.

"As far as strikers go, he's abolsutely top class, and you just have to look at his career, and all the things he's achieved, to realise he's as good as it gets so we'll have to be at our best.

"But the boys at the back have been playing brilliantly recently and we've got to go there feeling confident because we know that on our day, we can give anyone a game.

"It's going to be another hard game for us. They'll be desperate to win it as well so we'll have to give it 110 per cent.

"But we want to finish the season on a high and hopefully qualify for Europe. We've been training really hard and we're all fully focused on what we need to do."

If anyone can empathise with Owen, and what he has been through over the last nine months, then surely it's Roberts because the former Wigan striker's first season at Blackburn has been similarly plagued by injuries.

During the opening weeks of the season, when Roberts was looking to make his own mark at a new club, he tore his groin in training, a setback which cost him a month on the sidelines.

Then when he recovered from that and returned to the side in October, he suffered a metatarsal break similar to Owen's in Rovers' defeat at West Ham, which led to another three months in the treatment room.

"It's been a long season for me and coming back from injury has been really hard at a new club," said Roberts, who turned a negative into positive by using the time out to set-up his own charity, the Jason Roberts Foundation.

"When you've been at the club a while, people know you and you get to know them, so they know what you can do.

"But when you're at a new club it's totally different because you haven't proved yourself.

"I'm just really happy that I have been able to get back and show people a bit of what I can do, and I know there's still plenty more to come.

"I now want to knuckle down, work hard, and do really well for this club."